


Lover

by AsagiStilinski



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Celebrity, Alternate Universe - Idols, Alternate Universe - Music, Alternate Universe - Supernatural Elements, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Anxiety Attacks, Anxiety Disorder, Anxious Katsuki Yuuri, BDSM, Based on a Taylor Swift Song, Bisexual Katsuki Yuuri, Bisexuality, Blood Drinking, Bondage, Bottom Katsuki Yuuri, Bottom Victor Nikiforov, Cameos, Character's Name Spelled as Viktor, Character's Name Spelled as Yurii, Christmas, Christophe Giacometti & Victor Nikiforov Are Best Friends, Christophe Giacometti & Victor Nikiforov Friendship, Christophe Giacometti Being Christophe Giacometti, Christophe Giacometti is a Good Friend, Christophe Giacometti is a Little Shit, Collars, Confident Katsuki Yuuri, Conspiracy Theories, Costume Parties & Masquerades, Crossdressing, Disney World & Disneyland, Dissociation, Dom Katsuki Yuuri, Dom/sub, Drunk Katsuki Yuuri, Emotional Hurt, Eros Katsuki Yuuri, Established Otabek Altin/Yuri Plisetsky, Fame, Fan Victor Nikiforov, Fashion & Couture, Fashion Designer Victor Nikiforov, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Halloween, Hate Crimes, High Heels, Homophobia, Human/Vampire Relationship, Humor, Inspired by Taylor Swift, Internet, Katsuki Yuuri in High Heels, Light BDSM, Light Bondage, Light Dom/sub, M/M, Making Love, Mental Breakdown, Mental Health Issues, Mild Blood, Minor Otabek Altin/Yuri Plisetsky, Music, Musician Katsuki Yuuri, Musicians, Oral Sex, Panic Attacks, Party, Phichit Chulanont & Katsuki Yuuri Are Best Friends, Phichit Chulanont Is a Good Friend, Phichit Chulanont Loves Social Media, Phichit Chulanont is the Best, Pining Victor Nikiforov, Praise Kink, Protective Phichit Chulanont, Protective Victor Nikiforov, Social Media Expert Phichit Chulanont, Stepping kink, Sub Victor Nikiforov, Supportive Phichit Chulanont, Supportive Victor Nikiforov, Tattoos, Top Katsuki Yuuri, Top Victor Nikiforov, Vampire Bites, Vampire Katsuki Yuuri, Vampire Turning, Vampires, Vicchan Lives, Victor Nikiforov Has No Chill, Victor Nikiforov Is In Love, Victor Nikiforov is Extra, Victor Nikiforov's Foot Fetish, Wingman Christophe Giacometti, Wingman Phichit Chulanont, Yuri Plisetsky Being an Asshole, gender non-conforming, gender non-conforming Katsuki Yuuri
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-21
Updated: 2020-03-21
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:47:50
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 15
Words: 95,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23254933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsagiStilinski/pseuds/AsagiStilinski
Summary: "I mean you have a great theory here, what are you going to do if you're right? What if your beloved Yuri is just a cold blooded killer? Are you going to warn people? Or try to turn him in?"Viktor looked so serious and somewhat saddened that Chris was actually starting to feel bad about tormenting him this way"No.... no I'm going to stand by him, he wouldn't have murdered people for no reason Chris!"....Wait a minute what-"And even if he IS just a cold-blooded murderer, that's ok! I'll still stand by his side! I will protect Yuri Katsuki at all costs!!!"Or: The AU where Yuri is essentially Taylor Swift, Viktor is his biggest fan, and Chris accidentally starts a conspiracy theory that Yuri's songs are more about murder than bad break-upsAlso: Meet-cutes, vampirism, and too many crop-tops
Relationships: Katsuki Yuuri/Victor Nikiforov, Otabek Altin/Yuri Plisetsky, Phichit Chulanont/Christophe Giacometti
Comments: 26
Kudos: 108





	1. This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things

**Author's Note:**

> Edited by Venom <3
> 
> I binge-wrote this in five days in August after stumbling upon a post about Taylor Swift's songs being about murder (actually there were two posts, one is here https://grrrlicbread.tumblr.com/post/613195196368338944/okay-but-if-1989-isnt-a-secret-confession-abt-the the other has been deleted) it was meant to be a short drabble joke but sort of just..... kept going.... and I only got around to posting it now
> 
> Please strap in for a crazy ride <3
> 
> All chapter titles and scene breaks are from Taylor Swift songs and are listed at the end

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited by Venom <3

_The Definitive List Of Albums That Yuri Katsuki Has Committed Murder During_

......

That was what he woke up to in the morning, and Yuri wasn't sure what to make of it

_Don't blame me, love made me crazy  
If it doesn't, you ain't doin' it right_

Viktor Nikiforov loves Yuri Katsuki

Viktor Nikiforov has never actually _met_ Yuri Katsuki

But Viktor Nikiforov would go to _war_ in the name of Yuri Katsuki

And he knows, he understands, that kind of thought process sounds dangerous

He knows, he understands, there are so many fans out there who take it too far- _so_ far, _way_ too far...

He knows, he understands- really, he does- that celebrities aren't at all who they seem to be, that most of the time the face on the TV screen is just airbrushed and painted on, with an auto tuned voice and a professionally written backstory and a clever costume that looks about as real as their dyed hair and perfectly straight teeth

But it's different with Yuri, it really is

Sure, he may not know him, and even by his own standards, he knew that his love for him sounded like idolizing, idealizing, identifying with a stranger who sings about the way Viktor's heart aches, but there's something so captivating about Yuri that he just can't put into words

There's some sort of intensity that Viktor could never manage to describe, a pull, a connection, something that tied him to this man who he's never met and makes him feel so confident that the Yuri Katsuki the world saw was the real one

He knows how it sounds

He's been told a million times how it sounds, until he finally stopped saying it out loud, but there's something there that's cosmic, supernatural, written in the stars

He was born to love Yuri Katsuki

And that didn't mean Yuri had to love him back, or even ever acknowledge that Viktor was alive

It didn't mean that they ever had to meet or even be on the same continent

It didn't mean that Viktor would put his life on hold for a fantasy any more than he expected Yuri to put his on hold for a stranger he had never heard of

It wasn't unhealthy, it was just.... certain

He was born to love Yuri Katsuki, and if that love didn't manage to present itself until the next life, or the one after, or even the last, then that was okay

It wouldn't change the way Viktor felt- nothing would

_My reputation's never been worse so you must like me for me_

He had kept the snake

The snake had represented a part of his life that had changed him forever, and he refused to completely destroy it

Yuri didn't want to get rid of the person he had become two years ago, he just wanted to blossom into something greater, and find a way to merge that part of himself with the new person he was becoming

He was confident that the addition of the butterflies to his back, surrounding the snake, making a show of the reptile itself becoming part of the scene of butterflies around it, a perfect union, would accomplish just that

"Do you like it?"

Smiling softly, Yuri gave a small nod to his friend before looking over his shoulder and into the mirror again, absolutely enthralled by the additions to the tattoo

"I love it... I love it so much..... why weren't you a tattoo artist again Phichit?"

"Oh 'cause I'm not _that_ much of an artist, even if I'm good with the gun and a few basic designs, besides, I'd MUCH rather spend all day every day with my best friend and get to boast about the fact that I work for the most talented man in the world,"

Yuri snorted, rolling his eyes as he moved over to the chair in the middle of the living room so Phichit could disinfect the new pattern on his back

"And don't you DARE protest that, or your New Album Resolution will be gone before it's begun,"

"I was... snorting at the idea of you telling people you work for me,"

"No you weren't you big liar,"

Yuri smiled softly and swung his leg over the chair, leaning forward so he could rest his face against the back of it, his throbbing, freshly inked back exposed to his friend in full

Yeah... he wasn't

But he knew this would still take some getting used to

It was something he wouldn't have even been able to find without a certain _someone_

"Still thinking about him huh?"

Yuri hummed quietly and picked up the glass of sparkling cider in front of him, tilting it a little, watching the liquid slosh to and fro within the confines of the champagne flute

"I just want to find him Phich...."

"You will," Phichit sighed softly, dragging the cloth softly over the stinging flesh of Yuri's back to finish cleaning the needle-provoked wounds of his tattoo

"It's been over a year," Yuri huffed back with a bit of disbelief

"I've looked all over for someone with that name and I can't find one, obviously it isn't the same as the diminutive the internet says it is because why would he give that to a total stranger?"

Phichit frowned a little, putting one gloved hand on Yuri's shoulder and squeezing slightly, carefully avoiding the wounds

"Yuri, you can't tell me that you of all people, who still believes- after all of this- in true love and fairytales and magic- that you would never find your Prince Charming, he's out there somewhere Yuri, and you're going to find him,"

"Yeah," Yuri sighed softly, taking a sip of the fake champagne and resting his head against his arm

"I just hope I find him soon...."

_And you knew what it was- he is in love_

"Just one more hour!! How do I look Chris!?"

Chris offered his friend a lazy smile as he stared at him through the computer screen

"Like a million bucks baby," he winked back playfully

Viktor grinned from ear to ear, a light blush on his face as he glanced at himself in the mirror

He had his "Lover" sweatshirt on, even though it was August and he was kind of sweltering in it, he had a heart painted over his eye in glitter and had temporarily dyed the ends of his hair pastel pink and blue, his nails were painted the same, with L.O.V.E.R. painted on both sets, and his favorite blue flower crown on

He looked like a preteen gay nightmare and he absolutely loved it

"It's just one more hour Chris! Just one more hour! I can't wait, I'm so excited I'm going to explode, why can't the store stay open past midnight and help a fanboy out?"

"Probably exactly because of this reason Vitya," Chris snickered playfully

"I'm pretty sure not getting swarmed by Yuri Katsuki fans is _explicitly_ why Target won't stay open past ten,"

"Well that's just sad, they'll have to deal with us in the morning so it's kind of senseless in my opinion,"

"Ofcourse,"

Personally, Chris was a fan of Yuri Katsuki

He didn't think the guy hung the moon and stars like Viktor did, but he liked him well enough to have his albums and enjoy seeing him around the media

Viktor however....

Viktor was _obsessed_

Viktor was a fan of alot of things, and a big fan of a few, but when it came to Yuri Katsuki?

Chris wouldn't even be surprised to hear that Viktor had committed a felony in the guy's name

Viktor bordered a strange line between being far too intense in his feelings, and yet never actually doing or saying anything concerning

Chris had worried at first when he met Viktor and learned about the intensity of his devotion to this complete stranger, but over the years, listening to him reflect on his adoration for Yuri Katsuki while also wanting to keep a healthy distance- condemning those who pried too hard or went too far, who crossed that line between adoring him like a shimmering star and hunting him like an exotic animal- had made Chris come to a strange sort of conclusion

Perhaps "obsessed" wasn't the right term

Perhaps that was too negative and not quite appropriate to what Viktor felt

Perhaps it was far more like saying that Viktor was madly _in love_ with Yuri Katsuki

And that was why Chris listened

That was why he stayed up every pre-album night and watched his best friend go a little crazy, and he listened to the rants and the speeches and the long and drawn out conspiracy theories that are often times less "conspiracy" and more legitimate puzzle solving

Because Viktor loved Yuri, and Chris loved Viktor, and if expressing that love and sharing that love was what made Viktor happy, then Chris was more than happy himself to keep listening

_It's nice to have a friend_

"Thirty minutes left, people are going to start losing their minds,"

"Hopefully in a good way," Yuri mumbled softly, pacing anxiously across the living room floor and running his fingers through his hair

He should be excited

He should be partying

He should be over the moon

But he hadn't celebrated an album release like that in-.... well, technically ever, but he had stopped with the big release parties with _'1995'_

It had been a massive undertaking to perform for people- perform, in terms of putting on a mask of who he was- for hours and hours when he felt so extremely nervous

He had quit that three years ago when _"Reputation"_ came out, and he was much happier now because of it

Instead of big parties that made him feel like he was falling apart, like he was burning from the inside out, like he was spiraling out of control and barely holding himself together, he just spent his release-eve nights with Phichit and Vicchan, drinking non-alcoholic cocktails and champagne and listening to the album, doing something special between them to remember the night

So far both of the "parties" he'd spent like this had ended up in that "something special" being a tattoo, he half wondered if that would become a tradition

He had sworn last time that the snake would be his only tattoo, but now...

"Yuri, you're worrying for nothing, you're already surpassing fan love in droves from your last album! People are flocking to this thing! I bet you're going to break your records again," Phichit encouraged once more, reaching out and grabbing his friend's arm, tugging him back down and wrapping him in a tight hug

"I hope so," Yuri mumbled, though it was hollow and sounded as though he didn't actually mean what he said

In truth, surpassing his own expectations and breaking records were always nice things, but they were never really what he wanted from all of this

All he ever wanted was to make his music and make people happy by hearing it

Somehow that always felt like the much bigger obstacle

That was why he refused to go near social media, because hearing the criticism and the hate... it was too much for him

He had learned that lesson in the beginning and he was eternally thankful to his manager for demanding he lose his accounts before things started to really go down hill

Yuri had started to become controversial with his third album, when he was only seventeen, and had come out of the closet

Ever since then he was considered a figure of controversy, and despite his success, that never changed

Even with acceptance slowly coming more and more for the LGBTQ+ community, Yuri constantly found himself in the middle of debates, arguments, and controversies

From who he "dated" (which was no one, but he was tired of trying to tell people that) to what he wore, from his friends to his enemies and his anxiety and his weight

From his music to his personality, his political stances to the way he laughed, the color of his fingernail polish and even his glasses

Everything was judged, everything was crucified, he couldn't win- not really- and he couldn't ever hope to be more than just a game to be played or an exotic, wild, animal in a zoo to be stared at and expected to entertain those around him

Sooner or later, he felt that everyone around him took this mentality

Sooner or later, he felt that he would find himself making yet another mistake that the public wanted him executed for, and he would lose whatever friends he may have managed to scarcely make

But Phichit was the exception to that rule

Phichit had been with him since childhood and he was the most persistent, consistent, insistently kind and wonderful part of Yuri's life

It was no wonder he preferred these quiet nights with Phichit over the big parties that set him up as an attraction to be stared at and judged, even when he wasn't on stage 

"I know that this is going to do as much good as telling a fish to stop swimming but... Yuri, quit worrying," Phichit insisted, giving his friend a bit of a tighter hug and scruffing his hand through Yuri's hair, much to the musician's slight amusement

"Sorry, I just... last time I released an album I was angry, I told myself I wouldn't care what people thought because it was out of anger, that I was a new person, but now... this one was made with love, and it feels so much more personal and... I just want them to like it,"

 _I want them to like **me**_ , which was always the part where Yuri had went wrong in the past

"They love it Yuri, and you have every right to feel more timid about this, you went through a transformation, you went from anger to love, that's like... like an open wound finally starting to heal, it's going to be tender for a while, it'll hurt to be touched, ofcourse you're going to be more vulnerable than you were before, but you're going to be better off for it in the long term too,"

"I know Peach," Yuri smiled sweetly, leaning up to kiss his cheek

"I knew it would feel like this when I started it, but... I still worry,"

"I know you do, that's why I'm here though, to remind you that even if the worst happens, you've still got me, you'll never be totally alone Yuri, not as long as I'm alive,"

"I know," Yuri sighed, leaning against Phichit's shoulder and watching the clock tick down

Twenty minutes to go

"Thank you, Phichit... for everything,"

"Don't be so silly Yuri, you've got no reason to thank me, this is what friends are for right?"

"Yeah," Yuri said quietly

"I guess it is,"

_I struck a match and blew your mind, but I didn't mean it_

"Ten more minutes!! Ten more minutes!!!"

Chris had been hearing the excited countdown of Viktor's screaming every five minute interval for the last hour, and while most people may have found that exhausting, Chris just found it charming

...

Mostly

But he _was_ starting to get a little bored with it, and he wondered off-handedly if there was any way he could make this countdown more interesting

"I can't believe in barely over a year Yuri has gone from murdering droves of people to becoming the pure, soft, butterfly that he was always meant to be! In just one year he's gone from Eros to Agape! I'm so happy that he's happy, good for him!"

And that's what started it all really

That's where, unbeknownst to Chris in that moment, he would end up setting the events for the rest of their lives into motion

"Bold of you to assume that A.- He only murdered people during _'Reputation'_ , and B.- He stopped murdering people just because he found happiness and internal peace,"

Viktor, who had been on a constant high of enthusiasm for the past hour, suddenly paused from restarting _"Me!"_ on loop (.......... _**again**_.......) and turned back to the computer, eyebrows pinched in confusion

"What do you mean?"

"I _mean_ that if you think he only started killing people during _'Reputation'_ then you clearly haven't heard much of _'1995'_ \- _'I Know Places'_? _'Clean'_? Not to mention _'Getaway Car'_..."

Viktor narrowed his eyes, a look of skepticism on his face

"You can't really be serious...."

"Look honey, all I'm saying is that he has alot of songs that end up coming back to the theme of murder, I mean have you ever actually listened to the lyrics? Do it with the filter of a murder confession and you'll get a bit of a different grasp on things, that entire album is just a long confessional about how he and Haruka Nanase committed a hit-and-run, wich, you know, explains why they were both ... _Like That_.... post 2015,"

Viktor narrowed his eyes again, his mouth slightly open

His expression kind of reminded Chris of that meme of Sarah Paulson and the math symbols

"......... Wah-....... ok, alright, I'm going to listen to it and prove that you've lost your mind Chris,"

"Alright, want me to stay up and listen to _you_ lose _your_ mind?"

Viktor rolled his eyes, clearly not believing he was, in fact, going to be doing any such thing

"Sure, why not?"

_Everything will be alright if you keep me next to you_

"Omedeto!!"

The cork popped, and Yuri laughed, grinning happily as Phichit poured him a glass of champagne

The tradition was always to save it for exactly midnight, never a moment early, out of Yuri's superstitious beliefs that something horrible would happen to the release if they celebrated early- yes, even by one minute

"Congratulations on your album!! Twenty-four and seven albums, do you know how crazy that is? And they're all chart toppers!! You know you're going to go down in history as like... the best musician ever right? Or- because I know you're still not THAT capable of being nice to your Brain Mouse yet- atleast the most successful,"

Yuri laughed a little harder, shaking his head as Phichit poured the champagne

"I don't know Peach, I'm still pretty sure Elvis is going to hold that record,"

"Oh you're definitely crazy, or are you just drunk already?"

"Stone cold sober," Yuri insisted, sipping on his drink and shrugging

"Or I was until about two seconds ago,"

"Pffft, Yuri, you are going to be the most successful musician ever, if you're not already, think about how amazing that is!! You're a history maker Yuri! You were born to make history!!"

Yuri just shrugged, his face a little pink as he tossed back a bit more of the champagne

"Oh please Phichit, you're exaggerating,"

"....You're lucky your Brain Mouse hasn't killed you yet,"

Yuri shook his head and chugged down the rest of his glass, setting it down on the counter as Phichit refilled it

"I'm lucky alot of people haven't killed me yet to be honest,"

"Wow, that's morbid!" Phichit noted with a burst of his own laughter, pushing Yuri's glass back towards him before picking up his own

"It's true,"

"And yet you're somehow still your own worst enemy," Phichit winked playfully, hip-checking his friend and taking a sip of his drink

"Not anymore, I made a resolution with _'Lover'_ and I'm keeping it, I am NOT my own worst enemy anymore, my worst enemy is now... probably Georgi Popovitch... or maybe JJ..... or Yuri Plisetsky.... maybe it's The Straights..."

Phichit choked on his drink, staring at Yuri- who was half way through his own glass now- in shock and amusement

"Holy fuck are you already tipsy?"

"Nope, I'm just celebrating, I'm here, I'm queer, and I've made more money and success than any homophobic assmunch in history,"

"You're one drink down and you already sound plastered!!" Phichit howled

"I am drinking my liquid confidence so I can be honest,"

Phichit snorted and rolled his eyes, shaking his head as he grabbed Yuri's hand and dragged him out to the middle of the kitchen, turning the stereo on and jacking the music up loudly enough that they _might_ get a noise complaint out of it, and starting to dance with him in the middle of the room

"Ok, well keep being honest and dance with me then! We don't want you getting alcohol poisoning on your release night now do we?" he laughed

Yuri shook his head, finishing off his second glass and twirling Phichit playfully before reaching for the bottle again

"No you're right, but just a liiittleeee more...."

"You're lucky I'm here to keep you from ruining your liver permanently Yuri," Phichit grinned, chugging his own drink

If he took a few glasses from that bottle, then Yuri couldn't drink as much, right?

"Yeah," Yuri agreed with a nod

"Phichit, as long as you're around, I'm always going to be lucky,"

"Ok and now we're entered sappy territory," he snorted, grabbing the bottle from Yuri forcefully

"You, Yuri Katsuki, are going to dance with me in celebration of this accomplishment, and if I have to go get the stripper pole to keep you away from that bottle, I'm going to do that!"

It should surprise neither of them that, by the time morning came, that pole was front and center in the living room

But that was alright

The night was fun, and Yuri didn't often allow himself to celebrate, so he could allow himself a few hours of recklessness with his best friend, right?

Wasn't that what friends were for?

_I can't trust anything now_

"-And then by 'Fearless' he's DEFINITELY witnessed a murder at the very least, if not by his own doing, I mean if you haven't listened to 'Haunted' recently-!"

Chris has made a terrible mistake

He had made a horrible mistake by ever introducing Viktor to this insane nonsense conspiracy theory

He really should have learned his lesson about introducing Viktor Nikiforov to conspiracy theories back when he accidentally convinced him that lizard-people were real

He had two options in front of him here

Either he could be responsible and try to tone back this insanity by explaining to Viktor that he had just been trolling him two hours ago when he originally brought this theory up and try to drag him away from the ledge....

... _Or_..................

"So what are you going to do now Vitya?"

He could encourage it and see how far Viktor would take it

Because Chris really wasn't the picture of responsibility

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"I mean you have a great theory here, what are you going to do if you're right? What if your beloved Yuri is just a cold blooded killer? Are you going to warn people? Or try to turn him in?"

Viktor looked so serious and somewhat saddened that Chris was actually starting to feel bad about tormenting him this way

"No.... no I'm going to stand by him, he wouldn't have murdered people for no reason Chris!"

....

Wait a minute what-

"And even if he IS just a cold-blooded murderer, that's ok! I'll still stand by his side! I will protect Yuri Katsuki at all costs!!!"

"....Ok Vitya, I think it's time to stop now, you've started to go into The Bad Place...."

"Are you crazy!?"

"No but I think _you_ might be,"

"I still have half of his material to go through!! We haven't even touched on the big ones yet! 'Treacherous', 'Out Of The Woods', and what about 'Red'? Do you think maybe he was talking about the color of blood!? _Loving you was red_ yeah because he fucking murdered people with his friend, probably Haruka Nanase!!" 

......

It was past two in the morning

It was too late for Chris to be dealing with this shit

"....You know Vitya I think I'm going to sle-"

"No!! No way! We haven't even talked yet about how 'Innocent' plays into this and that's a heavy hitter!!"

......

God help him, Chris was never going to make the mistake of falsely accusing a pop star of murder ever again

_You said the gun was mine_

"Yuri, Yuri get up, get up!!!"

Oh gods.....

Fuck.....

How much did he drink last night...?

Rubbing his eyes in agony, Yuri slowly sat up, his body trembling a little with the effort as he forced himself to be vertical, reaching for his glasses as Phichit crawled on top of him

Fuck......

"What is it Phich?" he mumbled, rubbing his eyes and putting his glasses on

"You broke your own record already!! _'Lover'_ is now officially the top pre-ordered album of all time, beating _'Reputation'_!!"

"Wow, that's really great," he yawned, wondering distantly if Phichit would be opposed to making him some coffee

Yeah technically Phichit was his personal assistant and the head of his social media team (and by "team" he meant Phichit and a few of Phichit's friends) but he was Yuri's friend first and foremost and he hated asking him to do things like bring coffee to him…...

He just hoped it would fall under the "I'm your hungover friend who's dying please help me" category and wasn't like... a _demand_ or-

"Also people think you're a serial killer now,"

...........................................

"W-What....?"

_All I know since yesterday is everything has changed_

He should have been outside by now, doing his "Congratulations Yuri!" video, in a silk robe and heels and Gucci sunglasses, dancing to "You Need To Calm Down"

Instead he was still in his living room, staring down in terror and shame at the number on the post he had made

_145,837 notes_

........

Yeaaaaaaah..............

Needless to say that the damn thing had gone VIRAL

He swallowed tightly, feeling himself beginning to break into a cold sweat, his breathing uneasy as he stared at his biggest mistake EVER

Oh god, OH GOD!!!!!

One tiny error in judgement and all of a sudden his blog's dumbest post was EVERYWHERE!!!

Hooooolyyyyy shiiiiiit.....

It wouldn't do any good to delete it at this point, considering that it had already made the rounds so hard, there was no taking it back now

Even worse though were the 24 messages in his usually empty inbox

He didn't even want to see what they were

He was terrified

He didn't know what to do

The phone rang and he screamed, jumping and officially startling Makkachin, who had been sleeping peacefully on the couch next to him until a second ago

Ahh....

It was Chris though, so... so he should really... pick up the phone....

Swallowing tightly, he shakily picked up the device and clicked the green button

"C-Chris....?"

_"Have you been online yet Vitya?"_

"Y-Yes......"

_"Then you've seen it?"_

"Y-Yes..."

_"It's everywhere you know, this thing has become a viral meme overnight,"_

"Unfortunately Chris, I'm aware," Viktor grumbled in frustration as he bit his nail and stared listlessly at the post

He needed to turn his computer off....

_"Well... what are you going to do? I think everyone took it as a joke- which is what I HOPE it was meant to be, Vitya..."_

"I-It was meant as a joke yes! I... I slept on it and realized how utterly ridiculous that idea was... Yuri Katsuki is the world's most pure angel and I could never believe otherwise!"

_"Riiiiiiight...... so what are you going to do? Let it stay? Delete it?"_

"I don't have alot of choices, even if I did delete it, it's already gone too far around to stop it now, the damage is done, all I can do is try to refocus people's attentions elsewhere, I'll do the _'You Need To Calm Down'_ video and try to direct our friends towards it to get _that_ to go viral instead, maybe I can just mark this off as a dumb prank to get Yuri more attention and then... up my support for him even more to distract people from my lapse of intelligence... I'm a celebrity designer, Chris, surely I can manage that if I make enough of a scene of myself,"

_"Yes... well....... about our friends.... have you checked your messages yet Vitya?"_

"Hm? No... why....?"

_"I think it's best that you do that,"_

Swallowing tightly, he reluctantly moved to check his text messages, feeling his stomach sink as he watched the massive flood of texts pour in from his social group

Most of them were- all things considered- positive

Jokes, teasing, reactions to his "great meme"....

But then there were others that were _far_ less approving, not that he was surprised though

Despite being a very open and vocal supporter of Yuri, he still had friends who hated Yuri Katsuki's guts, and though they mostly ignored Viktor's love for him, it seemed that this in particular had rubbed them the wrong way

"...I... I'm going to die Chris...."

_"Oh Vitya, it'll be alright, take it from someone who's been caught in **many** internet scandals myself, it'll go away eventually,"_

"That isn't even what I'm concerned about!! I... I don't want to go through the drama! Sure I'm an extra bitch but I pride myself on being an extra bitch who stays out of the discourse!! Except when people are attacking Yuri.... but now I'VE accidentally given those people fodder to attack him further!! I'm going to fucking DIE defending this man Chris! Usually I wouldn't mind that but not when I've been the one to cause it!"

_"Sweetheart I think you're exaggerating just an ounce..."_

"I'm not, I'm not! Ugh.... oh Chris.... what am I going to do?"

_"You're going to keep moving, darling, just like you always do, you got through that 'Tyler Hoechlin as Superman' discourse, you made it through Yuri getting cast in that abominable romcom from a few years ago more or less unscathed, and you managed to get out of the Teen Wolf apocalypse alive, you can handle this Vitya,"_

"That was all different, those were debates over fictional characters and casting choices, and they were.... atleast MOSTLY contained to just a few corners of the internet and some friends.... but this is EVERYWHERE.... even the romcom thing wasn't so much a criticism of Yuri as it was pointing out that someone summoned the anti-Christ to do their bidding.... but this...."

He whimpered, crashing back on the couch and hiding his face in the pillows

"I suppose all I can do is thank God that Yuri doesn't actually look at social media himself, so surely he'll never know this happened, right?"

_Did you think I wouldn't hear all the things you said about me?_

Phichit couldn't remember the last time he had heard Yuri laugh this much, or this hard, or this loud

He was laughing so hard that he was tearing up, he could barely seem to gulp down a breath before a new outbreak of joyous laughter burst out, panting softly as he hung half off of the bed, his hang-over seemingly gone for the time being

"Oh... oh ow... oh god... oh help.... this is the... the best thing... I've ever... ever read!!!" he shouted

Phichit, for what it was worth, laughed too, but more over Yuri's reaction than the actual post itself

"It's great right? And guess what? Because it's turned into a viral meme, people are talking about you even more than before!! Not only is _'Lover'_ skyrocketing, but _'Reputation'_ has hit a resurgence, as well as a few other key songs from your previous albums that were involved in this theory,"

"It's amazing," Yuri half-laughed, half-gasped, shaking his head and groaning miserably as the pain from the laughter started to worsen his already intense hangover, which was beginning to make a resurgence of it's own

"Oh... oh god.... help... my ribs..." he panted, rubbing at his eyes

"Wow, I had no idea you'd like it this much," Phichit commented, hanging over the edge of the bed upside down to mimic his friend

"It's so great," Yuri beamed

"Some of them are pretty big reaches but others hold up concerningly well,"

"But don't you think people are going to take it seriously? I mean I know most people aren't that dumb but considering the 'The real Yuri died and now he's been replaced by a faker' theory that alot of people subscribe to just because of 'Look What You Made Me Do'... I dunno, I'm a little worried,"

"Oh Peach, people aren't _that_ smart," Yuri teased playfully, sitting up and rubbing his head

"I'm pretty sure the haters are already looking for ammo from the album anyway and this has put me in the spotlight with people who are indifferent to me, maybe enough to convince them to listen to a few songs or atleast remind people that I'm around if they aren't paying attention to _'Lover'_ , I don't think this has a downside,"

"Bold assessment my friend," Phichit smirked, sitting up as well

Yuri snickered, biting his lip and grabbing Phichit's phone from where he had dropped it on the mattress a few moments prior, starting to scroll through some of the comments and feeling unabashed joy bubbling up in his chest

It really was hilarious

He was surprised by the level of thought that had gone into the original post, although maybe he shouldn't be, his Poodles were pretty analytical and had never failed to dig up all of his Easter eggs and secondhand meanings before- well, atleast not the ones that he _wanted_ them to dig up

Yuri Katsuki called his fans his Poodles

Yuri Katsuki's Poodles were trained very well over a decade of gentle conditioning to hunt for clues and (perhaps overly so) analyze everything he said, did, posted, and recorded

Yuri Katsuki's Poodles had turned much more into bloodhounds over the last few years

Sure from time to time it was a little inconvenient that they were _so_ good at what Yuri had trained them to do, because he couldn't so much as get coffee without people trying to figure out what it meant that he was wearing a blue sweater on a random Tuesday in December, but it came in handy alot of times too, it allowed him to double down on the honesty in his music while maintaining the image of an innocent sweetheart who would never purposely hurt anyone, and it allowed him to express what he loved and what interested him and what he hated and what disgusted him without every word out of his mouth being a political statement

And it lead to true treats like this

"Hey Phich, can you show me how to tweet?"

Phichit blinked at him in surprise, taking his coffee from the nightstand and raising his eyebrows

"Um, I mean... yeah, sure, ofcourse! But are you sure that's ok? I thought Minako put you on a lifelong social media ban after that um.... the... _incident_... of 2012?"

Yuri's expression faltered for a brief moment, stomach churning at that memory

Definitely one of the worst moments of his life, a moment that had almost _ended_ his life...

"I'm still on my ban," he declared confidently

"I'm just making one post and then never touching it again, and I'm only writing something, I'm not reading anything that you didn't pre-approve, swear,"

"Ok," Phichit nodded slowly, putting his coffee down and grabbing his phone

"I just hope Minako doesn't kill me,"

"Oh I promise, she'll be laughing way too hard, besides, I thought _I_ was supposed to be the murderer here?"

Phichit glanced up at him and snorted, shaking his head

"Wow, this is going to be your new thing isn't it?"

"I think I found the theme for K8, I might break another record- the amount of time it takes for me to make an album,"

"You are a mad genius my friend," Phichit hummed, shaking his head

"A mad, mad genius,"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Brain mouse credit: https://catifex.tumblr.com/post/175103995572/catifex-bishounen-curious-chloroscythe
> 
> Chapter Title: This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCaoEIy-sNY
> 
> Scene break titles in order-
> 
> o.Don't Blame Me- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blVed8CyzoQ  
>  o.Delicate- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCXGJQYZ9JA  
>  o.You Are In Love- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwMZ_BYoCpI  
>  o.It's Nice To Have A Freind- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaP1VswBF28  
>  o. Getaway Car- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nwzgfgw6zf4  
>  o. 22- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgFeZr5ptV8  
>  o. Haunted- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W83csQimarI  
>  o. Look What You Made Me Do- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tmd-ClpJxA  
>  o. Everything Has Changed- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1oM3kQpXRo  
>  o. This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCaoEIy-sNY


	2. It's Nice To Have A Friend

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited by Venom <3

_You need to calm down_

"CHRIS!!!! HAVE YOU BEEN ON TWITTER IN THE LAST FIVE MINUTES!?!"

Chris, who had a mouth full of cereal and was not ready for This Shit at ten A.M., was not pleased by the attack on his hearing that came from Viktor's distressed and needy face-timing

"No...."

"YURI KATSUKI KNOWS ABOUT THE MEME AND HE FUCKING TWEETED ABOUT IT!!!"

"Well what did he say darling?"

"THAT ISN'T THE POINT! HE TWEETED! HE'S A _RECLUSE_ CHRIS! ALL OF HIS SOCIAL MEDIA IS CONTROLLED BY HIS BESTIE!!!! HE HAS NEVER TWEETED BEFORE!!! I DID THIS TO HIM! _I DID THIS TO HIM!_ "

"Yeah and if I lose my hearing you're going to do _that_ to _me_ , so sweetheart, in the words of your idol, _you need to calm down_ ,"

"CHRISTOPHE GIACOMETTI I AM GOING TO FUCKING KILL YOU AND NO AMOUNT OF OTHERWISE CUTE YURI REFERENCES IS GOING TO STOP ME!!!"

"You're being too loud,"

" _CHRIS!!_ "

"Also, isn't it your lovebug that's the murderer? Are you going to help now? I know you like Hannibal but damn,"

" _ **CHRIS!!!!!!!**_ "

The louder Viktor got, the more shrill he got too

Chris felt a migraine coming on

"Damn, it's ten A.M., are you ok?"

" _Ya sobirayus' ubit' tebya, chert voz'mi, ty, chert voz'mi, bozhe moy, ty polnost'yu razrushil moyu zhizn' i moi shansy s moim budushchim muzhem, chto s toboy?!_ "

Oh god, here we go

"Darling, DARLING, you're speaking Russian, I can't understand you,"

"I FINALLY got Yuri to notice me and it's for some stupid fucking meme thing I accidentally created in a moment of over-excited and hyper-fixated misjudgement and I am forever going to be known as the dumbass who accused the world's purest cinnamon roll of being a serial killer!!"

"But what did the tweet _say_ darling?"

Viktor looked like he was about to cry

He was standing outside in his little pink frilly sleeping mask and silk robe and looked like he was going to burst into tears

A day he had looked forward to for months was utterly ruined- atleast for right now- and it was _a little bit_ his fault

Chris officially felt kind of bad

"It said 'Ok I admit it, most of my albums are murder confessions, but I'd really prefer the term 'vigilante' over 'serial killer', after all, I only kill the bad ones' and then it had a winky face and was signed 'Yuri',"

"Well it sounds like he's having fun with it, he doesn't sound upset," Chris noted, pouring himself a cup of coffee

"That doesn't matter," Viktor practically sobbed, putting both hands over his face and shaking his head rapidly

"The point is that I have wanted for YEARS to be noticed by Yuri and now THIS is how it happens!? I mean this is even more embarrassing than if I had drunkenly stripped and had a dance off with him in the middle of some fancy party and then demanded he become my vocal coach!"

"....That's a very random and oddly specific analogy...."

"Yeah well it's kind of a fantasy I have but that isn't the point!!"

Maybe not but it was interesting information for Chris to mentally store for later

"Vitya, sweetheart, just make your video, do what you said, redirect people's attention, maybe this won't be the only time he tweets, maybe if he sees your video and really likes it he'll tweet about that too, besides, does he actually know that _you_ started it? It's pretty hard to trace the original source of a meme once it explodes, even in the beginning, and he doesn't exactly strike me as an internet extraordinaire,"

"T-True...." Viktor mumbled, sniffing quietly and rubbing at his eyes

"Ok... ok! Ok, I'm going to make the video,"

"Good boy Vitya,"

"W-Will you watch it? And... and spread it like wildfire? A-And show it to that cute fuckbuddy you have who's all internety with the bunches of followers?"

"Consider yourself the next Hillywood sweetheart," Chris promised, relieved that the metaphorical fire seemed to be getting put out

"O-Ok.... ok thanks Chris,"

"Mmm-hmm, no problem," Chris hummed, sipping his coffee and waving goodbye before turning off the facetime and sighing lowly, relaxing against his kitchen counter

Damn.... what a morning......

_Big reputation, big reputation, oh you and me we got big reputations_

"Yuri!!! Look at this!!"

Yuri glanced up from the dish he was setting on the floor, eyebrows raised at Phichit as he rushed down the stairs

"What is it?"

"Someone awesome did a video dedicated to you!!"

"Oh yeah?"

Bowl now safely placed in front of Vicchan, he straightened up, leaning back against the kitchen counter and holding his hand out for Phichit's phone

The moment he saw the title of the YouTube video, his lips ticked up into a soft smile, his eyes warming and his heart fluttering

_You Need To Calm Down - Viktor Nikiforov_

"Who's Viktor Nikiforov?" he asked curiously as he pressed "play"

It was his own music that blared back at him, making it clear that this was a lip-syncing video and not a cover like he had originally expected, but that was fine with him, that was more than fine, he loved lip-syncs

"He's a big fashion designer!!"

"Oh?"

"Yeah, he does suits and fine-tailored stuff mostly but he's most well known for his androgynous clothing lines, do you remember the tuxedo dress Christophe Giacometti wore to the Tony awards last year?"

"Yeah?"

"That was Viktor's, apparently they're pretty close friends,"

"That's awfully neat, maybe someday he can design something for me," he noted, his eyes never once leaving the video screen, his expression still warm and clearly pleased

Viktor wasn't really much of a dancer, he was out of step in alot of areas, but what he lacked in technical skill he more than made up for in enthusiasm 

He may have just been dancing alone in his yard, but his use of props and facial expressions made it a truly adorable video that Yuri was _more_ than happy to be watching

"Really? You? The king of 'I don't care about fashion just let me wear my sweatpants'?"

"Yeah.... well, I.... I have to wear fancy stuff sometimes so... might as well be fancy and statement making right? Besides, I've got to support the fellow gays,"

"Aren't you bi?" Phichit teased playfully

"Really Peach?"

"Sorry, can't help it," Phichit snickered, hopping up on the counter behind his friend

"Besides I'm like... a five on the Kinsey scale, so that's _mostly_ gay,"

"Oh, excuse me," Phichit grinned again, looking over his friend's shoulder at the video

_"Congratulations Yuri on your seventh album!! May it be your best yet! On behalf of myself and all my fellow queer fans, thank you so much for all that you've done by being open about who you are, thank you for using your voice to speak for us, ya tebya ochen' lyublyu! Congrats, can't wait for K8!"_

Yuri swallowed tightly, inhaling deeply and rubbing at his eyes as he handed the phone back to Phichit

"That's so sweet..."

"See Yuri? You do so much for people just by being who you are, there's another one on here that's a parody of This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things called Yuri Katsuki Is Our Nice Things done by some people from the mental health community, also celebrating your album,"

Right...

His sexuality wasn't the only thing he'd always been open and honest about

His anxiety disorder had been the cause of so much grief during his career- not just because of the disorder itself, but because he confessed to having it in the first place

People who didn't understand mental illness had destroyed him so many times about his "fake" illness, and even members of the mental health community at times seemed to judge him for not being ill "enough", when he acted confidently about something or didn't express his symptoms outwardly....

He couldn't believe he'd come to a point in his career where the things people had hated most about him when he first emerged as an artist were starting to become the things that he was getting the most support for

It felt so surreal, and so much better than any award or broken record ever could

"You can watch that one later though, you've gotta get ready to leave for the radio interview,"

"Yeah... yeah, ok," he nodded, clearing his throat quietly and taking a deep breath, pushing a smile

"Phich, can I ask you for a favor while I'm doing the interview?"

"Ofcourse! What'cha need?"

"I want you to find the person who did the original murder meme post, I want you to find them so I can thank them,"

_This hope is treacherous, this daydream is dangerous_

Chris really had believed that he would get some peace after Viktor's video was done

Chris was wrong

He stretched out on his couch, glad he didn't have a shoot to do that day, and reached out to scratch behind his kitty's ears as the little creature mewled and curled up beside him

He could probably finish off Hemlock Grove if he didn't move from the couch for the next three hours....

Sadly, before he could even grab the remote, however, his phone went off

It wasn't Viktor's ringtone though, which surprised him, as not too many other people preferred to call him rather than text, but he found it wasn't as odd as he first thought when he picked it up and saw who was calling

"Well hello there my peachy little friend," he cooed into the phone

_"Chris!! You're friends with Viktor Nikiforov right? And he started the Yuri Katsuki Is A Serial Killer meme!?"_

Motherfucker how did that still follow him even to his next potential date?!

Though, Phichit was a self-proclaimed social-media addict so he supposed it wasn't actually all that surprising that he'd heard of it, more that he was calling to talk to Chris about it....

"Yes, as a matter of fact,"

_"PERFECT!! You uh... remember how I said a while back that I couldn't tell you who I worked for because for personal reasons?"_

"Yes....?"

_"Well I think it's about time I tell you that I work for Yuri Katsuki,"_

.............................................

_What??_

"Are... are you.... kidding....?" Chris asked slowly, cautiously, because he didn't want to freak out until it was completely necessary

_"Yeah, nobody except our families and a few really select friends like Yuri's manager know that I'm his personal assistant and social media 'consultant' because Yuri doesn't want people bothering me or trying to hunt down my own personal accounts as an attempt to get to him or anything, so we decided when I first started working for him that we'd keep it all a secret, sorry about that, but-"_

"Don't apologize, if I had that kind of fame I'd want to keep your pretty face all to myself too..."

Phichit laughed, clear and happy, like silver bells, but Chris couldn't indulge in the delight that brought him too much, his focus was just too deeply interwoven in the thought of Viktor having an absolute _stroke_ if he found this out

What were the odds...?

_"Thanks, I mean, it's not like that for Yuri and I, but thanks, anyway Boss Man wanted me to hunt down the guy who started this meme so he could thank him, it really made Yuri happy after feeling super anxious all night, and by sheer coincidence, he also saw Viktor's video for 'You Need To Calm Down' and wanted to meet with him about designing something for Yuri-"_

"What..?"

_"-and so I was wondering if you could hook me up with Viktor and we could set up a meeting! I think they'd both really like it!"_

Chris gave a small, humorless laugh, his mind far too absorbed in the sheer absurdity of this situation to possibly let himself be amused instead of stunned, and shook his head slowly in sheer, utter, incredulousness

"Unbelievable..... you don't understand my Peach, Viktor is the biggest Yuri Katsuki fan alive, he's going to die when I tell him about all of this,"

_"Really? ...........Oooooooor you could **not** tell him,"_

That made Chris smirk, his eyes lighting up in delight as he sensed a scheme coming

"What did you have in mind darling?"

_"Well, Yuri really likes Viktor, and Viktor really likes Yuri, so how would Viktor feel about a surprise meeting? I think Yuri would be up for it,"_

Chris gave another small laugh, the idea briefly flashing through his mind that this may, in fact, actually kill Viktor

"I think he's dreamed about that sort of thing so many times he could write a book on it from memory,"

_"Well then, let's make his dream come true, shall we?"_

_You're so gorgeous, I can't say anything to your face_

A week after _"Lover's"_ release, Viktor found himself pulling up to a studio

_"Me!"_ is blasting in the car as he drives up to show the security guard his ID

The guard looks like she's probably going to laugh herself to death but is respectful enough not to actually do it, and Viktor can only assume that it's because she wasn't expecting a 27-year-old high-fashion designer to roll up listening to the same music that 15-year-old girls are currently screaming to all over the country

She tells Viktor, between giggles, to enjoy his time there, and he can't understand what she means, but thanks her anyway and drives on

It's a little weird honestly, he's never been to a filming studio before, but Chris has explained atleast a dozen times that whoever this actor was he was supposed to be meeting was apparently _so_ busy that they couldn't be bothered to have an actual appointment in Viktor's office

Viktor thought such behavior was abhorrently pretentious and diva-like, but Chris insisted that he wouldn't regret taking the job and Chris was never wrong about that sort of thing, so he reluctantly agreed to go along with this nonsense and atleast consoled himself with the fact that he would get to see what a filming studio was like, which was pretty cool

The project was titled _Perfect Winter_ and the person he was looking for went by _Eros_ on set, which was kind of funny, because he hadn't heard that as anyone's nickname or codename since the Poodles started calling Yuri Katsuki that a couple of years ago when he changed his look and was seen wearing a t-shirt with the word printed on it, it was what they had called Reputation Era Yuri, but Viktor hadn't heard it in some time

Regardless though, he didn't think too much of it, he was sure alot of people were influenced by Yuri, directly and indirectly, so he would probably run into all sorts of people using that title now that Yuri was no longer actively using it himself

"Hi," he said upon parking and finding the nearest person wearing a headset, hoping she could help him with what he needed

"I need to find the dressing room for Eros? I'm Viktor Nikiforov, here for a meeting about a design?"

The assistant- he assumed that was what she was, due to the headset and clipboard- looked _beyond_ thrilled and amused at his innocent question, and cleared her throat, probably to keep from laughing

"Um.. do you see the red hallway on your left? All the way at the end, the room to your right with the black feather on it is his,"

"Ok, thank you!!"

So Eros was a guy?

Well that's one mystery solved

With a polite wave back to the assistant, he headed down the red hallway as instructed, wondering distantly what this movie or, perhaps, TV episode, was supposed to be about

There was so much set up going on and yet he didn't see very many potential cast members, everyone he saw looked like they were part of the crew, did actors not hang around on set before filming?

Well, no matter, he isn't here for that, he's here for design work

So he made his way down to the end of the hall and found the door he needed with ease, giving a small tap on it with his knuckles to alert Eros to the fact that he was there

_"Oh! Come in!"_ a muffled voice called

He couldn't tell who it was based on that alone, the door distorted it fairly well, and Eros sounded like he had something in his mouth too...

Shrugging it off however, he entered the dressing room- which was strangely plain for someone who he had assumed was a diva- and shut the door behind him

There was someone sitting in the chair in front of the makeup desk, but Viktor couldn't see any details about the guy, he was wearing a big fluffy robe and a towel over his hair so it could really be anyone....

"Um, hi? I'm Viktor, I'm here about the design...?"

Eros hummed softly in answer, and got down from the chair, reaching out to put on a pair of blue-framed glasses

Oh hey, those looked kind of like Yuri's!

And then, in what seemed to be a nearly perfectly fluid motion, the figure turned around and shed both his robe and his towel, revealing himself to be none other than Yuri Katsuki

"So I'm a murderer huh?" he teased playfully

........

Viktor lost the feeling in his legs

_'Cause you've got that James Dean, daydream, look in your eyes  
And I've got that red lip, classic, thing that you like_

"Um... Viktor....?"

The poor guy looked stunned half to death and Yuri actually felt kind of bad for doing this to him

"Viktor... are you ok-?"

"I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!"

...

Ok, he wasn't expecting that

Viktor looked about as shocked by his own outburst as Yuri felt, and the poor designer quickly started turning as red as Yuri's lipstick

"I-I... I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," he mumbled, hanging his head, still crimson in the face

"I-I just.... I just... I'm your BIGGEST fan! I've been following your career since you were fifteen and I have every album and I've been to every tour and I've seen all of your interviews and videos and I-... oh god... oh god I'm so sorry, I'm just making all of this worse, and I SWEAR to you, I am NOT crazy! And.. and I just meant that post as a joke! I never actually thought you were a murderer! A-And it was really all alot of bad judgement because of my friend Chris and-"

"Viktor," Yuri said suddenly, apparently snapping Viktor out of it immediately

"It's really ok, your support makes me really happy, and I actually asked my assistant to track you down for that post because... I wanted to thank you for making it,"

"I-.. you... wanted to.... _thank_.. me...?"

"Well yeah," Yuri said quietly, tucking a stray strand of hair behind his ear

Even though it was slicked back now with enough gel to probably hold a speeding car in place, some strands still managed to escape from time to time

"Viktor, that meme made me happy, I was feeling pretty nervous about the new album and when I saw that... I don't know, it just... it made me smile, it made me laugh, it made me feel good and forget about the worry for a while, and it brought alot of extra attention my way too, even from people who aren't typically fans of mine, it was good for me in alot of ways so... thank you,"

"Y-You're welcome but... didn't it also hurt you? I mean, your.... the morons who pick on you, don't they just hate you even more now? Don't they have.... extra canon fodder now?"

"Eh... not really, even the ones who try to use it are mostly seen as jokes now so it really didn't have any downsides,"

Viktor looked adorable, completely terrified.... but adorable

It gave Yuri a bit of a thrill actually, seeing him like this, like a soft little lamb, being stared down by a wolf

It made Yuri remember the Eros in him, the snake in him, it reminded him of the self he had been a year prior when he was still absorbed in all of the anger and despair that had created _"Reputation"_

And it reminded him of what had happened to bring the Agape out of him as well, to turn his snake into a sky full of butterflies

His tattoo throbbed, he felt a pleasant ache from it, a memory more than a physical pain, his mind supplying the pleasant sting more than the healed ink ever could, and that Eros in him that had faded into his soul long ago was blooming up to the surface again

"Viktor, I really want to thank you for your video too, the lip-sync you did for _'Calm Down'_? It was so cute, and the message at the end brought tears to my eyes,"

Much like the ones that looked to be forming in Viktor's eyes now, actually

"I'm sure it's no surprise to you but I'm really not into fashion, so I didn't know who you were until my friend told me last week, when I found out that you had designed Christophe Giacometti's tuxedo dress from last year's Tony awards, I knew that I had to meet you, I knew I wanted you to design something for me too, so... what do you say? Will you do it?"

"Yes," Viktor breathed, like a prayer, like an act of desperation, like a song of worship

"Yes, yes absolutely, anything, just.. just name it,"

Yuri's expression was soft and warm, but it held a seductive edge to it too

He nodded, stepping closer and holding his hand out for Viktor

"I'm shooting the video for Cruel Summer right now, but you're welcome to stay if you'd like to, then after I'm done we could go to dinner? I highly doubt I'll finish my schedule before evening,"

"I would love that," Viktor breathed, taking Yuri's hand a bit shakily, but still with commitment in his hold

Yuri adored him already

"Excellent, then I'll make sure you have a front row seat to the filming, then you can choose where we go for dinner, just... make it someplace quiet, ok? It'll be my treat,"

Viktor nodded like a bobblehead, before suddenly protesting

"M-MY treat!" he all but shouted, face still tinged pink

"P-Please, really-"

"No no, I'm asking you for a favor, it's my-"

"It's my job though, not a favor," Viktor corrected

Yuri couldn't help but smile a little bit more, amused yes, but mostly just... charmed, and sincerely adoring of Viktor

God, when was the last time anyone- except Phichit- had bought him anything besides something obligatory like a birthday gift?

When was the last time anyone refused to take him for the fact that he was one of the richest people in the world and insisted on treating him instead?

It felt nice, having someone in front of him who wasn't about to take advantage of who he was- even if it was just for something as silly and simple as a business dinner

"Ok," he finally relented

"I'll let you get this one, BUT, only on the condition that you let me pick up the tab next time,"

"Next time," Viktor breathed, though it sounded a little more like a question than an agreement

Yuri would take it either way

"Next time," he confirmed with a small nod, adjusting his glasses with his free hand before squeezing Viktor's hand affectionately and leading him back to the door of the dressing room

"Let's go then, I've got a film crew waiting on me, and the sooner I finish this, the sooner we can go to dinner,"

"R-Right, yes, dinner," Viktor squeaked

Yuri had to bite his lip and hope it didn't mess up the color he had so carefully applied to his lips previously

Viktor was truly a precious creature, and while part of Yuri desperately wanted to keep him this way- perfect and pure and soft and sweet- the other part, the Eros part, the snake slithering amongst the butterflies, couldn't wait to corrupt him, the way that he knew he could

_He looks up, grinning like a devil_

Viktor decides that, at some undescernable point, he must have died

He must have died because this was surely Heaven

Viktor wasn't what he would call a religious man, especially compared to most of his Russian friends, but he was spiritual and he was a man who believed in magic and the afterlife and fate, and he believed that Yuri Katsuki was some ethereal being from a realm other than earth's

He wasn't a religious man but he believed in Heaven and he believed that Yuri's touch could take him there

He wasn't a religious man but he believed that Yuri Katsuki was an angel who had been locked out of Heaven and Viktor was just lucky to stand in his grace

Maybe it sounded like alot, for a man he had only just met, but the way he felt was so beyond what logic could ever define

There was something about him that made Viktor feel complete, like the missing piece he had been begging for since he was a child was finally there and within reach and Viktor only had to reach out and take it

There was something about Yuri- in his eyes and his smile and his breath and his very existence, in the aura around him, in the air he breathed, in the soul that he was- that made it feel like Viktor was being dragged closer by some invisible magnet, and Viktor knew he would kill and die and live for that magnetism

It was a sensation he had only ever had in his wildest dreams, in the middle of the night hugging his pillow and picturing Yuri's face in his head

It wasn't explicitly sexual, it was just....

It was a _want_ that shook through every part of his body, a desperation to just be near this incredible person, and he didn't know how to handle it, he didn't know what he had ever done to get in this deep, but he wanted more of it

He wanted all of it, forever, to keep it and hold onto it, to never let it go, or be let go by it

Yuri is, as cheesy as it may sound, the dictionary definition of beauty

He's something that Viktor had no words for

He was so enthralling that Viktor felt his heart ache everytime he looked at the man

Saying Yuri was "gorgeous" was alot like saying it was a bad idea to stick your hand in the mouth of a Great White Shark- obvious and a vast understatement of the truth

Viktor had to be glad he was sitting down as he watched the video film, because he felt weak in every part of his body and doubted he'd be able to stand

Yuri was watching him while he filmed, Viktor knew it, they were making eye contact, and that only made it all so much worse

The first time Viktor noticed it, Yuri was laying on a fake beach, wearing a yellow and purple polka dotted bikini top and jean short shorts and nothing else 

His glasses gleamed slightly against the bright lights of the set, his heel dug into the towel beneath him as he ran his hands down his neck, and over his shoulders, and he stared- he stared _directly_ \- in Viktor's direction

_"It's cool, that's what I tell 'em  
No rules in breakable Heaven,"_

And Yuri's lips twitched upwards, his eyes catching directly against Viktor's as he sways and twists his body, as if he's experiencing ecstasy, being made love to, his expression completely joyous, and Viktor's mouth is dry, his heart is aching, and there's irony in all of it

Because as Yuri sings _"It's a cruel summer"_ , he's smiling so brightly that Viktor almost wants to laugh, because it's so full of happiness, it's so full of joy, it's so beautiful and it makes him feel like Yuri is experiencing the most delightful thing, an inside joke that Viktor doesn't understand, but he doesn't need to, because just seeing Yuri look this happy is contagious and makes him this happy too

Yuri sings about bleeding and being cut to the bone

He sings about crying and screaming

He sings about killing and dying

But he sings every word with the brightest smile on his face and his eyes focused on Viktor

And Viktor doesn't know how to handle it

He only knows that- much as Yuri sings that he's sealing his fate- Viktor's own fate is sealed now too

If everything goes up in flames, if he screws this up and loses the best thing he's ever had, there will be no escape

He's Yuri's, before Yuri has ever even had the chance to claim him, and he's more than happy to damn himself to that eternally

Because this feeling, this sensation, even if it disappears, just the fact that he ever had it in the first place, is so euphoric, that he decides it's immediately worth any pain that may follow

He's Yuri's, unmistakably and permanently, and maybe it's cruel for Yuri to hold his heart so tightly before they've even had dinner, but Viktor doesn't care

This kind of happiness is a risk he's willing to take, and he can only pray to whatever god is listening that Yuri feels the same way

_I'm yours to keep, and I'm yours to lose_

"Did you really enjoy it that much?"

"Are you kidding me? That's the best time I've ever had!!"

"You were just watching me film,"

"So? It was enthralling!"

Viktor's enthusiasm was charming, it made Yuri feel loved in a way he hadn't since he started his career

Sure he had plenty of fans, and they often expressed their love and joy to him, but this was.... this was different

Viktor was different

There was something he couldn't explain about Viktor that made everything feel so .... _new_

It was like they were alone together- like the rest of the world was gone and neither of them were celebrities, neither of them were anyone to impress or anything to desire, they were just... two people, getting to know eachother and falling in love at first sight

It was exciting and enthralling, the way he felt new and pure for the first time in so long, he had forgotten what it felt like to be adored by someone one on one, not in a screaming crowd of fans or at some meet-and-greet where he was surrounded by security and paparazzi, but just... two people, having dinner and laughing and loving together

It was incredible

Yuri could go his entire life living this feeling day by day and never get tired of it, he was sure

"Well I'm glad you got such a kick out of it and don't mind that we left so late,"

"Never!!" Viktor beamed immediately

"I honestly would really love to attend more things like that in the future, but I'm just a designer, another dime-a-dozen tailor really, nobody ever wants me involved in their work, they just want to wear something pretty and I so happen to be the hands that create it,"

"Viktor, you're not a dime-a-dozen anything," Yuri said seriously, reaching across the table to take Viktor's hand and give it a squeeze

"And if you like it that much, then you officially have my permission to attend whatever recordings of mine you'd like,"

"Wait... really?" Viktor asked in surprise

"Really, I enjoy the audience, I enjoy _you_ , knowing that you're watching me... it makes me happy, it makes me perform better, I like that, I don't want you to take your eyes off of me, so by all means, any time,"

"Ha, I'm going to take you up on that, Yuri Katsuki,"

"Are you? You know I'm not done filming _'Cruel Summer'_ , right?"

"Ah... yes, right,"

"Then would you like to come back tomorrow too?"

Viktor beamed with so much sun and light and energy and joy that Yuri was nearly burned by the intensity of it

But it was a good kind of burn

"I'll be there with bells on!"

Yuri laughed, full of joy and tenderness and affection

He had never felt like this about anyone before, but it felt like the happiness in him was _blooming_ , like a flower, opening up to the butterflies in his stomach, brought on by Viktor's everlasting sunshine of a presence

This was fragile, he knew

This was dangerous territory

It was treacherous

So easily something this soft and pure could be shattered, so easily it could be broken before it was even fully formed, and it would require ease, it would require care, not to let it break

But Yuri was up for the challenge

He might lose it all at once, but he also might keep it forever, and he was more than willing to roll the dice and cross his fingers, and pray for the best

He was willing to risk losing it if he could possibly gain keeping it

He was willing to put himself out there, be vulnerable just as he had promised himself he would a year ago, if it meant ultimately gaining something as invaluable as Viktor

He would fight for this, he would try for this, and if he lost.... well, so it goes, but atleast he tried

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Russian translations (according to Google translate): -I'm going to kill you, damn it, you goddamn asshole, you completely ruined my life and my chances with my future husband, what's wrong with you?!
> 
> -I love you very much
> 
> Hillywood- https://www.youtube.com/user/JckSparrow
> 
> Chapter Title: It's Nice To Have A Freind- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaP1VswBF28
> 
> Scene break songs:
> 
> o.You Need To Calm Down- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkk9gvTmCXY  
> o.Endgame- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfnCAmr569k  
> o.Treacherous- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIjEf8bv-7A  
> o.Gorgeous- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUoe7cf0HYw  
> o.Style- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CmadmM5cOk  
> o.Cruel Summer- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ic8j13piAhQ  
> o. So It Goes...- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxg8zHmJ32o


	3. Wildest Dreams

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited by Venom <3

_Didn't it all seem new and exciting?_

Viktor took his sketchbook with him when he went to set the next day

He spent most of the day sketching designs for Yuri, and what time he didn't spend sketching, he spent watching

Yuri was still some ethereal being that he had no real explanation for

He was still beauty incarnate and he was still an angel with just that hint of something darker lurking within, just that taste of poison from the devil

He was like Wonderland- beautiful and enthralling, full of brightness and color, but with something darker that blended in seamlessly with the giant flowers and tea parties

Viktor wanted to know what it was

He wanted to continue searching through the forests of Yuri Katsuki's mind until he found out all of the secrets that this world of his had to offer

Curiosity may have killed the Cheshire cat, but Viktor knew Yuri could satisfy him well enough to bring him back

Yuri still watched him throughout the video he was filming too

He still had that Cheshire grin of his own on his face, half teasing, half sincerely bliss-filled as he watched Viktor from set

Even when the spare dancer who was meant to play the part of Yuri's lover was with him, the musician's focus was still on Viktor

He smiled at him and his eyes gleamed behind his glasses, a few strands of hair hung in his face from the gel-backed style, he was equal parts perfectly put together and beautifully wrecked, like an artistic mess, like an expert artist had personally crafted his disaster

Less like a hurricane and more like a well-timed summer storm

He danced, and he sang, and he watched Viktor, and Viktor felt more inspiration than he could ever remember feeling

He filled up page after page with designs and ideas, and even after Yuri had stopped filming, he still wasn't done

This was how it went for the next week or so

Viktor would join Yuri on set and work there, and Yuri would work and spend his breaks talking to Viktor and sharing snacks from the vending machine with him, despite the horror that the director seemed to have over seeing his beautiful star snacking on a pack of mini doughnuts or a bag of candy

Viktor had never had as big of a sweet tooth as he did when he was with Yuri, but he was never satisfied by candy or pastries

Yuri liked wearing big fluffy robes during his breaks, even when he wasn't in a scandalous state of dress, it was a comfort thing

Yuri decided one day to do Viktor’s makeup for him, and Viktor was pleasantly surprised how good he looked- he had always kind of assumed that Yuko, Yuri’s makeup artist, did _all_ of Yuri’s makeup, but evidently not

Yuri was very cuddly, very physically affectionate, and even though they'd only known eachother for a few days at the time, Yuri quickly found himself using Viktor as his personal pillow throughout the day, leaning on him here, laying his head on him there, milking Viktor of hugs and cuddles and draping himself against Viktor's back like an expensive coat as he watched the designer work

Yuri liked everything he drew, Viktor quickly learned, he couldn't remember there ever being a piece that the pop star was so much as lukewarm about

And Yuri had a tattoo, he also learned

He had yet to ask about it, but he'd noticed it the second day of filming for _"Cruel Summer"_ and he learned the next day when he caught Yuri before costume change that the tattoo, apparently, was real, and not airbrushed on or make up like he originally assumed it was

It was beautiful, something Viktor immediately admired

It took up quite a large section of Yuri's upper back, and it depicted a snake with butterflies bursting up into the sky all around it

It suited Yuri, Viktor decided

It reminded him of the transformation he'd had over the last year and he wondered if that was what inspired the album or if the album had inspired the tattoo

He wondered how old it was, given that it was clearly healed by this point in time, yet he didn't remember ever seeing Yuri with a tattoo before....

Ofcourse Yuri, in general, wasn't one to walk around with much skin showing, he often kept himself pretty covered up, and when Viktor really thought about it, he couldn't remember ever seeing him with his back exposed before this video at all...

He decided on the last night of the shooting for _"Cruel Summer"_ that he would just have to get some answers, just in case this all ended in the morning, just in case they didn't see eachother again until Viktor was done designing for Yuri

He'd get the answers he wanted- or.... aleast, he _hoped_ that he would

_He said "Let's get out of this town, drive out of the city, away from the crowds"_

"Let's drive out of the city, let's go someplace just the two of us,"

Even Yuri didn't quite know where that request was coming from, but he was requesting it all the same, and Viktor was seemingly more than happy to oblige

Yuri didn't drive, as a general rule, he didn't like it

He _could_ drive, but he preferred not to, it usually made him anxious, always having to be so cautious and aware of everything, always having to be so completely careful of the traffic and the roads and the car itself but....

But for some reason, he was more than happy to drive this time

Viktor had a pink Cadillac, Yuri wasn't surprised but he was amused

They hadn't finished filming until late into the evening, after the sun had set and the air had cooled

There was something freeing about driving through the streets after sunset, with the lights of the city glowing around them and the soft September breeze blowing through their hair as they listened to Halsey- because Yuri had **insisted** against playing his own music- with Viktor leaning against the rolled down window, head tossed back as if he were enjoying the ride of his life

And maybe he was

Yuri was, so was it a stretch to say that maybe Viktor was too?

They sang along with the music, and laughed at the stares of the people in the cars around them

Viktor blew him kisses and Yuri winked at him more often than was explicitly necessary

Viktor looked like a supermodel with the way he leaned back against the seat, his arms over his head as he shouted _"We are the new Americana!"_ in his thick Russian accent, which made Yuri laugh alot louder than he should have, and inspired him to join in with as much of his own accent present as possible- something he typically tended to hide, especially when he was singing, that he was finally putting on full display

"YURI!!" Viktor had screamed in delight

"Your accent is so pretty!! Oh my god, please stop covering it!! It's lovely!"

And that _really_ made Yuri laugh, because after so many years of being repeatedly told that he needed to hide his accent _more_ , it was hilarious in a cathartic, healing sort of way, to hear Viktor so enthusiastically tell him to stop hiding it at all

It was great

It was the best

It was _perfect_

A two hour drive filled with good music and the air of early Autumn, punctuated with stops for terrible junk food and slushies at gas stations and neither of them really caring where they ended up or when they got there

Yuri finally pulled into a hotel parking lot at just before ten, he let Viktor check into a room for them and pulled his hoodie up and his glasses off, putting on a decorative cloth mask over his nose and mouth, his best attempts at a casual disguise as he allowed Viktor to guide him through the lobby and into the elevator

He kept his "disguise" on until they found their way into the hotel room and flopped backwards onto the bed

They were friends, Yuri reasoned

Friends that would be ok sharing one bed, the way he and Phichit so often did, why else would Viktor have requested a one bed room?

Friends....

Though Yuri not-so-secretly wished they were more than that

And it was so easy to wish for that when he and Viktor were laying on their backs, staring at eachother dreamily, peacefully, as Viktor reached out and took Yuri's glasses out of his jacket pocket, flicking them open and waving them playfully in front of Yuri

"How much can you see without these?"

"Not much,"

"Really?"

Without ceremony, he slid the glasses on himself, then cursed quietly under his breath

"Motherfucker Yuri, you're _blind_!" 

Yuri only laughed, grinning peacefully as Viktor hurriedly took the frames off and then leaned over, gently securing them over Yuri's face

"I tried to warn you,"

"Yes you did, does that mean that you wore contacts during your Eros phase?"

Ah... right

Yuri had indeed worn contacts for about two years, finally having caved to all of the stylists and critics who insisted he would be more attractive without the glasses

He had wanted his Eros phase to be a giant "fuck you" to the critics and yet he had conformed to exactly what they wanted when he removed his glasses and got rid of his "unruly" hair, slicking it back instead

He had worn contacts uncomfortably for two years just to see, growing more and more miserable with himself each day that he did so

Until finally he reached the Agape era and returned to wearing his glasses- vowing to keep them part of his appearance forevermore

He kept the slicked back hair though, as a tribute to the personal growth his Eros period had given him

Glasses and slicked back hair, the perfect merging of the two biggest phases of his adult life thus far

"Yeah I did, I hated them though, they were always irritating, a pain to put in, and I always felt like they were messing with my sight somehow, like.... even though the lenses were perfect, I.. I don't know, it sounds superstitious, but I feel like when I was wearing them I was blinding myself to certain things, I couldn't see as clearly as I can now, I feel like... like I wasn't all of me, then, like when I looked at someone, even myself, or when I read my own music or read about other people's criticisms- which I shouldn't have been reading in the first place- I only saw a blur of what was really there, does that make any sense?"

"It makes perfect sense," Viktor promised, reaching down to gently wrap his fingers around Yuri's

They squeezed, both at once, in a comforting sort of manner, and Yuri felt the most incredible calm flow over him, a sensation like nothing else he could describe

He wanted more though

He wanted Viktor

He wanted... he wanted....

"We should eat something," Viktor said quietly, his voice soft and not very convincing that he wanted to end the moment they were having, but Yuri was in agreement

They really should eat...

"Room service?" he guessed

"Room service," Viktor agreed

And although he was expecting it, Yuri couldn't help being disappointed when he sat up

He had hoped for a movie moment

He had hoped for one of those moments where you say one thing and do another- Viktor would say they should eat, but would move to kiss Yuri instead 

It was the romantic in him, he knew

But that didn't stop him from wanting it to be real

_We are alone, just you and me_

"You want to play truth or dare?"

"Well I guess that depends, do you really want to dare me to do anything? I was thinking closer to.... truth or truth,"

"Oh, truth or truth, that sounds legit," Yuri teased softly

Viktor snorted, even amused himself, as he popped a grape from his fruit bowl into his mouth

"Truth or truth," he insisted with as much bravery and confidence as he could

"Okay, alright..... okay then, this is your game, you start," Yuri insisted, dipping a french fry into some ketchup and biting into it pointedly

Viktor leaned back, his fingers tracing the rim of the bowl next to him as he thought of something good- a question he wanted answered, but one he was confident was easy enough not to spook Yuri away from playing the game

"How long have you had your tattoo?"

"Oh, straight to the serious ones I see,"

It was hard to tell if Yuri was joking or not, with the way he smirked and the lilt in his voice, but he seemed somehow serious too, and Viktor decided that it didn't really matter, it didn't matter if he thought it was silly or not because Viktor really wanted to know and that was the point of the game, wasn't it?

"I've had it... since before _'Lover'_ dropped,"

"Mm... the single or the album?"

"Album,"

"Oh but you got it after the single then?"

"That's not what I said,"

"But it's what you implied," Viktor smirked

The single was released a week before the album dropped, so that meant that at the absolute most, Yuri had had the tattoo for two weeks before Viktor saw it during filming

Odd.... that would have had to be some awfully fast healing for it to appear so completely perfect.... and Yuri didn't seem to have any pain from it either...

"Ok, my turn," Yuri announced suddenly, evidently done with the tattoo conversation, atleast for the time being

"Why are you such a big fan of mine? You said that you've been a fan since the beginning, so it isn't like you just... jumped on whatever was hot at the moment, what made you so devoted? And still, after all this time?"

Viktor shrugged, leaning back so that his shoulders were pressed against the foot of the mattress, toying with another grape as he carefully considered his answer, finally shifting on the floor one last time so that he could be a little closer to Yuri, leaning in like he was telling him a secret, as if the room was crowded with others who could have somehow overheard

"I moved here when I was twelve, I wanted to be in fashion and my uncle is a tailor who lives here, he offered to mentor me and my grandmother, who raised me, eagerly sent me away, for a while I hated everything, I hated being away from home, I hated my uncle's tutelage, I hated the things he was teaching just as much as how he was teaching them- that I would have to be a traditional tailor, that there was no room for my bigger, broader, more flamboyant ideas, I hated being gay in a world that pressed so hard on me to be straight, I hated always hearing 'no' and only having celebrities I couldn't identify with to look up to, I was angry and moody up until I first heard your music, when I was eighteen, even though you hadn't come out at the time, your music still.... well, as funny as this will sound, it sang to me, maybe you hadn't come out yet, maybe I thought you were straight, but it still felt like your music was singing to _me_ , you sang about honesty, and about love and loss and the inbetweens and the ins and outs, you sang about being an outsider and about the struggling dynamic of pursuing what you wanted and even getting what you wanted but still feeling as though you didn't quite have it because it had come with such a price that sometimes you struggled to pay the cost you owed, you sang about loving right and loving wrong, about the good and the bad, the happy and the sad and the angry, maybe you weren't the only one, maybe you were, maybe I didn't listen to enough or have access to anything outside of the mainstream radio stations.... but you spoke to me, Yuri, you sang to me, and I will never be able to stop thanking you for singing to me all these years,"

Yuri hadn't seemed to be expecting an answer quite like that

He looked like he was going to cry, possibly, like he was so caught off-guard that he had been rendered truly speechless, if only for a moment

"That.... Viktor...." he breathed, reaching up and rubbing at his eyes

"I don't know what to say.... I... I'm so glad that my music helped you so much... but... I really... I don't know what to say...."

"You don't need to say anything Yuri," Viktor promised softly, reaching out and taking Yuri's hand, giving it a small, soft squeeze

"You have done more for me than anyone else ever has and you never even knew you were doing it, I guess it's kind of like thanking the sun for shining but..... thank you, Yuri, for shining,"

That seemed to be more than Yuri could take

He burst suddenly into tears, raising his free hand up to cover his mouth as the tears started to stream down his cheeks

He shook his head, brushing their food out of the way before crossing the space between them and wrapping his arms around Viktor's neck, giving him a tight hug and letting his face press into the designer's shoulder

"I'm so happy," he breathed softly

"I'm so happy that I could make you happy.... I'm so happy that you're here, Viktor, and that you're able to be happy..."

Viktor's expression was warm, gentle, as he held Yuri close and closed his eyes

Yuri smelled vaguely like some sort of fruit, but Viktor couldn't put his finger on what, apples? No... maybe... papaya? No.... not cherry or mango either..... he wasn't sure, but he liked it

He smelled like that yet-to-be-identified fruit and a little bit of chocolate and just the tiniest hint of iron...

It was an odd scent, but Viktor thoroughly enjoyed it

He found himself stroking his hand down Yuri's back, rubbing gently, soothing the crying man who had found his way into Viktor's arms, and Viktor himself found himself wondering how he had ever gotten so supremely lucky 

_I hope I never lose you, hope it never ends_

The game of truth or truth went on for quite some time, with neither party seeming to have a lack of questions for the other

"So what's the deal with you and Yuri Plisetsky? There's some feud going on, isn't there?"

Yuri had just shrugged and leaned against Viktor's chest, stealing one of his grapes

"I think he's mad because I did that music video with his boyfriend, even though Otabek wasn't dating him back then..."

That had checked out in Viktor's head, Yuri- the Russian Yuri, who was his uncle's godson- had always been the jealous type, and even though he had never been fond of Yuri's- the hot one who he was now hugging- music, things _had_ seemed to take a turn when Yuri and Otabek did the _"I Knew You Were Trouble"_ video together...

Yuri (Plisetsky) had never actually told Viktor why there was a "feud", he just wouldn't entertain so much as Yuri's (Katsuki) name without screaming his lungs out and firing off a machine gun full of insults

He wondered vaguely if he should mention that he knew Yuri (Plisetsky) and Otabek....

"What's your most embarrassing piece of my merchandise?"

Oh, new topic, the thought of talking about the other Yuri and Otabek was gone now

Viktor acted scandalized upon hearing the question though, gasping and almost letting Yuri go as he shook his head quickly and groaned

"Oh no no no, I'm not answering that,"

"You have to, those are the rules,"

"I never agreed to that,"

"You proposed the game!" Yuri laughed

"I can't answer that Yuri!!"

"Oh my god, it's something horrible isn't it? Is it underwear? Do you own some unauthorized Yuri Katsuki underwear or something? Please say it isn't condoms, I don't know if those are a thing but I know they make Edward Cullen and Hello Kitty so I wouldn't be that surprised..."

"What? That's officially the most disgusting information I've ever heard, oh my god, and no it isn't either of those things, believe me,"

"Then what is it?"

Viktor had looked pretty embarrassed, but after a little more convincing....

"It's ah... it's an 'I Heart Y.K.' crop top... that or the musical toothbrush...." 

"Oh my god you don't really have that crop top... the toothbrush I believe but the crop top?"

"Hey, it was a political statement at the time, and I still look hot in it, thank you very much!"

Yuri laughed- he laughed _hard_ \- and shook his head, trying- and failing- to stifle his joyous giggles

"Oh my god.... _oh my god_....."

"I also have a Christmas ornament of _'Shake It Off'_ ,"

"I believe you," Yuri cackled, tossing his head back and grinning from ear to ear at the sheer magnificence of this situation

They went on like that for over an hour, shooting questions back and forth, sharing secrets and confessing sins, comparing experiences and discussing favorites and least favorites and love and heartache and _everything_

They spilled tea and talked drama, they traded wishes and spoke of dreams and fears and the inbetweens

It felt like they had known eachother for twenty years, it felt like they did this all the time

It was so familiar and warm, that by the time an hour had passed, they hadn't even noticed or cared that the questions had begun to become more personal, more deep, perhaps even too much so

"I'm sorry, I just have to know, of all those rumored lovers you've had, how many have you _actually_ dated?"

"None," Yuri noted casually, popping an M&M into his mouth

At some point, perhaps a point neither of them had really been consciously aware of, they had changed positions from sitting in the floor to laying in the bed, on their sides, face to face, like lovers would

"None from those you were suspected of dating?" Viktor guessed, taking another M&M out of the bag

"None at all," Yuri corrected, pulling out another little chocolate for himself 

"...At.... all? Never? Not even a kiss? Not even a date? Why?"

"I... never wanted anyone I met," he replied simply, rolling onto his back for a moment and staring up at the ceiling

"I feel like... maybe I'm being too picky, maybe my standards are too high, but I feel like if I'm not going to feel happy with the person I'm with then why would I date them? I don't want to just... be ok with the person I'm with, I want to adore them, I want to be happy to see them, I want to feel comfortable with them, I want to be able to be with them and not wish they would leave, I want to do things with them I'd never do with anyone else and tell them things I'd never say out loud... I want to feel safe, I want to be happy, I want to look at the person I'm with and say.. _'You're my person, you're who I want, you're the one that makes me smile and makes me feel warm and cherished and loved, you're it baby, you're mine,'_ , I want to love the person I'm with, or atleast... feel like I _could_ love them,"

"And these are your supposedly high standards?" Viktor asked suspiciously, eyebrows raised as he took the last M&M out of the bag and leaned over, pressing it against Yuri's lips

The musician's mouth opened, just slightly, just enough, and Viktor felt a chill of pleasure as Yuri's tongue flicked against his fingertips

"Well yeah, it hasn't happened in twenty-four years, what if I'm... what if I'm asking for too much?"

"You're not," Viktor huffed softly, withdrawing his fingers and pulling Yuri suddenly by the shoulder, bringing him to lay on his side again, forcing him to stare into Viktor's eyes

"Take it from someone who fucked because he was angry, someone who dated because he was bored, someone who ached for companionship so badly and hated loneliness so deeply that he had more bad relationships than good, and not a single one has ever been more than ok, please Yuri, if you never believe another word I say, believe this- you should like who you're with, not tolerate, not be ok with, not be vaguely alright around, you should _like_ who you're with, if you can't smile whenever you see their face, if you don't feel happy just to hear their voice, if you can't laugh with them and cry with them and feel like you don't want them to leave at the end of the night... then they're not the one for you, and you shouldn't date anyone less than that feeling just because you're afraid you'll never have it, trust me, it's better to be alone than to feel lonely in a relationship, I've had enough of that to speak with confidence,"

Yuri swallowed tightly, reaching out and stroking his fingers through Viktor's hair

"I'm sorry that you went through that, Viktor,"

"Don't be, it was my own stupid mistakes that lead me there," Viktor promised, placing his hand gently over Yuri's and stroking his thumb against the back of Yuri's palm

"It's your turn,"

"....What made you write the murder post?"

Viktor exhaled on a laugh, his eyes soft but his expression still clearly reflecting his embarrassment over that subject

"It was dumb, Chris proposed it and challenged me to listen to your songs with that lens on and not hear it.... things snowballed from there, I'm a bit of a conspiracy theorist,"

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, lizard-people are totally fucking real,"

"You're totally fucking right,"

That seemed to amuse both of them equally, a burst of laughter emerging from them, neither moving their hands, just keeping them in place, and joy filled smiles on their faces

"Ok then, Mr. Reptile Person, final question- are you a murderer?" Viktor asked playfully

Yuri's expression softened, his fingers squeezing gently against Viktor's, his voice quiet and low as he spoke

"What would you do if I was?"

"...Mm.... support you, I guess, I'd be your alibi, I'd help you get rid of the bodies,"

"Viktor be serious,"

"I AM being serious, I'd DEFINITELY be your partner in crime, I'm your ride-or-die, baby,"

"Viktor, 'ride or die' only happens in the movies, in real life it's called 'accomplice' and 'co-conspirator', and they wouldn't go easy on you because of your good looks,"

"Oh but you're assuming we'd get caught, I plan fully on getting away with our crimes, and if we DO get caught, I'll just take us to Russia, I could hook us up with the mob there and I'm sure they're fans of your's enough to help us hide,"

Yuri snorted, shaking his head

"What makes you think I wouldn't just kill you and frame you for all of the crimes then hm?"

"Because you wouldn't do that,"

"How do you know? If I'm evil enough to commit murder, why wouldn't I be evil enough to do that too?"

"Because you wouldn't, I just know, I may have only just gotten to know you Yuri, but... I don't know, my soul has known your soul for so much longer, I can feel it,"

"Viktor... this thought process of your's is dangerous," Yuri said quietly, but Viktor shook his head, pulling Yuri's fingers up to his mouth and pressing a kiss against them

"No, trust me, I trust you, I know you, call it what you want to but I will be loyal to you, Yuri, I would stand by your side, let me be the Will to your Hannibal, the Eve to your Villanelle, the Harley to your Joker- which should really stop being romanticized because that one's just abusive but my point is that I'm here for you, that's all, and you may not be an asshole like the Joker but I'd still run Gotham with you,"

Yuri appreciated the sentiment, but he could only shake his head in response

"Yeah, you know what all of those have in common Viktor? The serial killer tried to kill their shipmate- more than once at that,"

"Oh that's nonsense, Villanelle has never actually TRIED to kill Eve,"

"Viktor I'm serious! Killers can't be trusted! And you can't just go around throwing your loyalty to the wolves because you like them, you'll get hurt!"

Viktor's eyes narrowed, his nose wrinkled, and he pressed himself closer, moving his free hand out to cup Yuri's face, stroking his thumb gently over the musician's cheek

"I don't know what all of this is about Yuri, but I trust you, and I believe in you, and I know that you would never hurt me, _could_ you? Absolutely, but _would_ you? Not in an eternity upon an eternity,"

"What makes you so confident?" Yuri breathed softly

"I know you," Viktor replied easily

"I've known you for the longest time, I just didn't meet you until recently,"

Yuri exhaled, closing his eyes and leaning closer himself, their foreheads now pressing together

"You should have been a poet Viktor,"

Viktor chuckled quietly, shaking his head

"Nah... I'll leave that to the professionals, like you and... Edgar Allan Poe,"

"Poe? That's who you're comparing me to? Don't you think we're a _little_ different?" Yuri laughed

"I'm not comparing! I'm just.... using.... in conjunction with,"

"Oh ok," Yuri snorted, rolling his eyes playfully and laughing as Viktor suddenly stuck his tongue out childishly at his friend

"You're so ridiculous,"

"Me?! _You're_ ridiculous, trying to compare yourself to serial killers, does that get you off or something?"

"Um... no," Yuri decided with a slight laugh

"Not specifically, no,"

"Oh really?" Viktor grinned

"Well now you've piqued my curiosity,"

"Too bad, you said 'last question' already,"

Viktor gasped- utterly offended

"Are you really using that against me!?"

"Absolutely,"

"That's so cruel..."

"Further proving my point that if I was a serial killer, I could definitely be cruel to you,"

"Cruel? Yes, but hurtful? ...Still no,"

"And what if you're wrong?" Yuri snorted

"Then hopefully you'd do me one last favor and step on my corpse when you're done with me, give me my dying wish of Yuri Katsuki's heels stepping on me,"

"Viktor that's horrible!!!" Yuri screeched, though he was laughing the entire time, with Viktor grinning from ear to ear with equal fondness

"Is it really?"

"Yes!!"

"So you're not into that huh?"

"Not the corpse part, no!"

"Oh but the stepping you'd be alright with?"

"I-... maybe... I've never really thought of being into that..."

Viktor smirked, his hand squeezing Yuri's a little more, the sensation of nervousness beginning to fall over him with his next question

"Then... what _are_ you into?"

Yuri's lips twitched up slightly into a smile, his eyes softening as he tilted Viktor's chin up, just slightly, just enough so that they were nose-to-nose now

"You," Yuri decided, quiet and soft, but definitely there

"I ... I think, I don't want you to leave in the morning,"

Viktor didn't need another sign

He didn't need to wait on Yuri to potentially psych himself out of this

He just plunged forward and caught Yuri's lips on his own

They kissed

And it was long and slow and sweet

And Yuri exhaled through his nose and closed his eyes

And he decided then, in that moment, that he was glad he had never had anyone but Viktor, because surely he knew, that no one else would ever compare

_Cat and mouse for a month or two or three, now I wake up in the night and watch you breathe_

That night they slept together without sleeping together

They laid next to eachother and slept, they inhaled eachother's breath and they held eachother close, but they kept their clothes on and didn't touch beyond what was PG-13 appropriate

It wasn't until late in the morning that Viktor finally opened his eyes

He felt hot and sticky, making a mental note that the heat must be worse than it had been yesterday, and then glancing down and feeling his heart leap

_Yuri_.....

It wasn't a dream

It hadn't been just a fantasy

Yuri really was right there beside him, sleeping in the bed they were sharing, after kissing....

Kissing once, twice, a dozen times atleast...

The smile that bloomed across his face was childlike and excited and sweet, he felt like a kid on Christmas day, he wanted to burst out laughing in pure, unbelievable joy

Somehow his greatest wish had come true and he couldn't really be quiet about that could he?

But.... but he would resist the urge, because Yuri was sleeping so peacefully, Viktor could watch his chest rise and fall and the soft expression on his face as he- Viktor assumed- dreamed something pleasant

He had only barely managed to remove his glasses before falling asleep, so Viktor was treated to the grand pleasure of seeing Yuri's full face, entirely unobstructed

There was only one question left now: To wake him, or not to wake him?

Sure, on the one hand, he should let Yuri sleep, and he could definitely stand to lay here for... probably all day and do nothing but watch Yuri's steady breathing, but on the other hand....

_On the other hand_...

Viktor Nikiforov was one romantic motherfucker and he was going to make sure that when Yuri woke up to his first ever boyfriend- because they were boyfriends, he decided immediately, they couldn't possibly be anything less- for the first time, he was going to turn it into something stupidly romantic, and he even had the perfect idea for how to do that too

Well, Viktor had never been able to resist a good idea

So he shifted onto his elbow, leaning over and giving Yuri a soft kiss on the head

Then another on the nose

Another on the cheek

And on the jaw

And the neck

And finally, as Yuri started to stir, Viktor kissed his lips

He could feel Yuri starting to smile with surprised adoration the minute he finally registered what was going on

Slowly, lethargically, he could feel Yuri's arms reach out and wrap around him, tugging him closer

" _Kiss me once 'cause you know I had a long night_ ," Viktor hummed against Yuri's lips

" _Kiss me twice 'cause it's gonna be alright_ ," he purred, kissing the side of his face

" _Three times 'cause I waited my whole life_ ," he sighed dramatically, nipping Yuri's ear and pulling a startled laugh from the smaller man

"That wasn't a kiss," Yuri accused, pushing up gently and pushing Viktor down onto his back, easily climbing on top of him and playfully pinning his wrists to the bed, much to Viktor's giggling excitement

" _Kiss you once 'cause I know you had a long night_ ," he sang, kissing Viktor's head

" _Kiss you twice 'cause it's gonna be alright_ ," now a kiss to his cheek

" _Three times 'cause you waited your whole life_ ," and then, finally, his lips, for something longer, smoother, deeper, than just the playful teases they had been giving until now

Viktor sighed softly into the affectionate touch, his fingers curled, his heart thundered in his chest, but he didn't move, and he didn't try to escape Yuri's hold

He probably could have, but he _definitely_ didn't want to

" _I like shiny things, but I'd marry you with paper rings_ ," he promised softly as Yuri pulled away, pressing himself up closer and kissing the side of Yuri's jaw again

" _Darling, you're the one that I want_ ," Yuri promised with a sweet smile, pulling his hands away from Viktor's just so that he could use them to cup the designer's face, stroking his cheeks and staring adoringly into his eyes

" _I hate accidents, except when we went from friends to this_ ," he added

Viktor beamed, pushing them over again so that Yuri was now on his back and Viktor could hover over him, one hand coming up to trail his fingers down Yuri's cheek, his eyes full of joy and sheer, utter, endless affection

" _I want to drive away with you, I want your complications too, I want your dreary Mondays_ ,"

" _Wrap your arms around me baby boy_ ," Yuri challenged playfully

And god, _god_ , Viktor knew that was part of the song, but that name rushed through him like ice in his veins, he could feel the goosebumps rising on his skin and the slight prickling sensation of excited _want_ beginning to stir at the base of his spine

God, did Yuri realize what he was doing to him?

" _You're the one I want_ ," Viktor breathed softly, leaning down for another kiss

Yuri wrapped his arms around Viktor's neck, he hugged him close, and Viktor swore that he was in Heaven

This had to be Heaven, no earthly plane could possibly feel this good, could it?

He wasn't lucky enough to truly have something this spectacular was he?

No.... no it _had_ to be Heaven

"Be in the video with me," Yuri demanded suddenly

Viktor tugged back, staring at him in surprise and an ounce of confusion, about to question him, before Yuri continued

"For _'Paper Rings'_ , be in the video with me, be my lover, be my lover Viktor,"

"Are you... serious?" he breathed

Yuri nodded, a flush across his face, as if he actually expected Viktor to possibly say no

....

Well, _that_ obviously wasn't going to happen

"Yes," Viktor laughed, crashing his lips against Yuri's again, "yes"es falling off of his lips in a chant, in a mantra, a prayer to Yuri, who he was more devoted to than he could ever be to any god

"Yes, yes, yes.... yes, Yuri.... I will be your first, your last, your only, _lover_ ,"

This wasn't Heaven, he decided

It was something far, far better

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New Americana- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-eYbUVZedY
> 
> Chapter Title song: Wildest Dreams- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdneKLhsWOQ
> 
> Scene break titles:
> 
> o.Wonderland- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oq4nEzEiegA  
> o.Wildest Dreams- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdneKLhsWOQ  
> o.State Of Grace- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfRwdGzS1m0  
> o.Cornelia Street- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VikHHWrgb4Y  
> o.Paper Rings- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zdg-pDF10g


	4. Call It What You Want

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited by Venom <3

_You are the best thing that's ever been mine_

The next week was a blur of happiness

Yuri had never felt like this before

He wouldn't be able to shoot the video for another few weeks, still needing to get the rest of it in place- the director, the set pieces, the costumes....

It may have been written and found it's co-star, but there was still alot to do and Yuri Katsuki never half-assed anything, no matter how badly he wanted to get to actually doing it

Besides, it wasn't as though he weren't busy

Post album drop was always a tornado of interviews and radio spots and promotions that left him feeling alot more like a salesman than a musician

It was by pure luck that the interviewers didn't have any fodder to start asking about Viktor yet, nor did they ask about any current romances, as they were so much more interested in figuring out who the tracks on _"Lover"_ were about

It wasn't that Yuri didn't want people to know they were together- he did, he wanted to shout it from the rooftops, scream it from soaring planes, wave a banner of it across the sky- but... he didn't want to put Viktor through the undeniable and indescribable hell that would come from becoming Yuri Katsuki's Boyfriend

More than once Yuri had lost friends just because people _assumed_ they were together, and those friends couldn't handle the pressure of being associated with being the love interest of one of the biggest celebrities in the world, he didn't want that to happen to Viktor, and he couldn't begin to fathom how much worse it would be for him considering that they actually _were_ a couple

He wasn't going to keep Viktor a secret, but he needed to take a day to truly, really, discuss things with him, decide how he wanted them to come out and how he wanted to handle the onslaught of attention that would surely rain down on him

So far they hadn't gotten that opportunity

Viktor had been- much to his own displeasure- holed up in his studio for most of the week with work, having to finish more than one outfit for a big movie premiere

It was ok though

Yuri had decided to return Viktor's favor of constant set visits by bringing him lunch and dinner every day and eating in the design studio with him

It was a little tough sometimes, as Yuri so often had something scheduled throughout nearly the entire afternoon, but he managed it anyway, and it was more than worth the effort

And now, as Saturday approached- the day they had decided to use for that all important discussion-, Yuri could feel his anxiety beginning to rise

It was nothing he couldn't handle, ofcourse

He had been through far worse and he would just try to keep himself more or less held together until Saturday, until they could get through the next step

"Yuri, do you have plans for Halloween?"

"Huh? Oh um... no, not yet," he replied, shaking his head as he bit into a piece of pizza

"Mm.. what do you typically do for it then?" Viktor asked curiously as he bent down to add another pin in the hem of the dress he was working on

"It kind of depends... I usually go to some sort of event or party _before_ Halloween for appearances, but on Halloween night itself I usually just hang out with Phichit and watch horror movies or something, I really love Halloween but I don't want to spend it at a party where I have to be putting on appearances and be on edge all night,"

Viktor nodded slowly, seeming to understand and sympathize with that

He probably attended Halloween parties every year

Yuri didn't know anyone in the fashion industry, but he knew that every Halloween party he went to tended to be crawling with designers, so he wouldn't have been surprised

"Well, what would you _like_ to do for Halloween?" Viktor posed instead, rising to his feet and sipping on his coffee

Coffee with dinner? Probably a bad idea, but Yuri couldn't really blame him for it, considering how much he had to do before his deadline on Sunday

He was already pushing himself to finish it early so he could spend all of Saturday with Yuri, after all, so the musician definitely had no right to criticize him

(Especially considering that Yuri himself had had more than one or two or eighteen occasions of caffeinating himself past the point of reason, maybe not with coffee, but caffeine was caffeine)

"I.. well, I really would like to hand out candy to kids, I've always wanted to do that, but because of being who I am... I've never gotten to, having that many strangers have access to my house is too much of a security risk, my manager won't allow it,"

"Wait a minute, you've _never_ handed out candy before? Not even before you became famous?" Viktor asked in surprise

"Afraid not, trick-or-treating isn't really popular in Japan, and when I was a kid it wasn't around at all, only recently did it start cropping up and even now it's only in small, private circuits,"

"Seriously? How come?" Viktor pouted, grabbing a needle and a spool of thread to fix the zipper on the back on the gown

"It's considered an inconvenience, my culture is very considerate of not burdening others and trick-or-treating is sort of inconvenience incarnate so it's taking some time for people to find it appealing, mostly Halloween has always been celebrated with parties there, but I lived in a really small town so even that wasn't much of a thing,"

"I see... that's really unfortunate, everyone should get to experience trick-or-treating in some format..."

Yuri only shrugged, grabbing the scissors from the desk beside him and handing them to his lover when he saw Viktor begin to reach for them

"It's fine, how do you celebrate Halloween in Russia?"

"Oh Russia's very anti-Halloween," Viktor laughed

"Most of my country is Catholic-Orthodox and the church is very against Halloween, they think it's Satanic," he shrugged back, thanking Yuri for the scissors as he took them

"I didn't get to celebrate it until I moved here, Halloween's _technically_ not illegal there so young people have private parties and stuff but that's where it begins and ends, nothing for kids I'm afraid,"

"And let me guess, you, the king of defying authority, have become very fond of Halloween?" Yuri teased

"Oh yeah! I love it! I'm a total freak for it!!" Viktor laughed, snipping the thread into place and adjusting the zipper one last time

"I guess we've both got some spookiness to make up for, huh?"

"I guess so," Yuri smiled fondly

"Ok then, it's decided, I'm going to do something special, I'm going to surprise you with something, Yuri,"

"You sure? You don't have to-"

"But I _want_ to," Viktor insisted, dropping down to the floor to fix the hem he had pinned up earlier

"I want to do something special for you Yuri, _with_ you,"

"You're so sweet," Yuri sighed dreamily, watching Viktor and leaning his head against the desk beside him

"I guess I don't have any choice, do I? You're just going to surprise me with something anyway,"

"Correct!! You know me so well already Yuri!" Viktor exclaimed happily

"We'll have to come up with the most badass costumes ever for it, you know that right? Let's come up with something now so I have time to make them,"

Right... Halloween was just over a month away, and with Viktor having been commissioned to make costumes for other celebrities already- by his own admission, something he only did for friends and didn't advertise, due to the amount of work it took- he really would have to get working on them soon...

"Alright... well, do you have anything you're already planning on? Any plans you've already got in place for where to go or what you're wearing?"

"Mm, yeah, I'm going to Chris' Halloween party on the 27th like I do every year, he'll be out of town for Halloween itself this year so he's hosting it earlier than usual,"

"Ah... didn't he host it on the 29th last year?"

"Yeah, he usually does it pre-Halloween night like that so people with kids can attend but still hang out with the kids on Halloween itself,"

"That's nice.... you know I went to the last one, I can't believe we didn't meet,"

"Really?" Viktor asked in surprise, glancing up from the dress briefly

"Yeah, he and Phichit met last summer, so he invited us- although at the time he didn't know who I was, luckily,"

"How strange, I surely would have remembered meeting you... what a shame we didn't run into eachother," Viktor pouted

"It is, but... it's kind of for the better in the end, I wasn't in a good place mentally back then, I was still alot in the mindset of anger and bitterness, I had started working on _'Lover'_ but I didn't have a theme for the album yet, so alot of the songs were missing pieces, I.. actually met someone there that helped me get through that rough period,"

"Really?" Viktor asked curiously, turning from the dress again

"Who was it?"

"I don't know, I never introduced myself and his name... I don't recognize anyone by it so I think it may have been fake, we both had our faces covered too, so...."

Yuri only shrugged, smiling a bit sadly at the memory of the masked man who had put him on this path of beauty and happiness that he was on now

"That's such a shame... but better for me, I wouldn't have wanted you to run off with this guy or I never would have met you," he noted with a wink, blowing a kiss Yuri's way, much to the musician's amusement

"Oh Viktor, you're the only one for me, you know that, no one can compare," Yuri teased playfully, blowing a kiss back

"I think we should get back to planning our costumes though, did you have anything in mind for Chris' party? Will you want to dress the same for our private... thing.... or-?"

"Oh no no, different costumes all the way! And I was toying with a few ideas before but nothing concrete, I'd rather do something collaborative with you Yuri, than to just toss ideas around that I only half care about,"

"Are you thinking a couple's costume?"

"I-... yeah... if... if that's ok? I mean-" 

"It's perfect," Yuri interrupted quickly, his expression warm and loving as he and Viktor exchanged a short, adoring glance

"Well, we'll have to come up with two then," Viktor noted, clearing his throat as he went back to the dress

"Is Chris' party themed?"

"Nope,"

"Well we could go as a serial killer and a murder victim," Yuri teased sarcastically

Although... Viktor didn't take it sarcastically at all, if his reaction was anything to go by

Namely that he stabbed himself with the sewing needle

"Ouch!! _Blyad`_!" he cursed, yanking his hand away and shaking it quickly to distract himself from the pain

"Are you alright?!" Yuri called worriedly, immediately sliding out of his chair and moving to gently take Viktor's hand in his

"Y-Yeah I'm fine, just.. stabbed myself..."

"You've gotta be more careful.... why aren't you wearing thimbles?"

"Impede my sewing, besides, I've... never stabbed myself before... not in many many years atleast... but your idea Yuri, it was so-"

Viktor paused, his breath catching in his throat as Yuri suddenly stuck the designer's bleeding thumb in his mouth

For a moment, there was nothing but tense silence, Viktor's heart drumming loudly in his chest as Yuri carefully sucked at the bloody finger, his tongue running against the wound, tasting the sweet copper drip into his mouth as he licked at the injury a few times, Viktor moaning quietly in front of him, the taste and the sound combined was.... _heavenly_....

"Y-Yurka..." Viktor breathed, the diminutive slipping from his mouth like a groan, it was just enough to spark Yuri's attention back to him and slowly pull off, licking his lips as Viktor stared at him, clearly dumbfounded and a bit shaken

He looked like he had either seen a ghost... or been touched for the very first time

He was flushed and breathing a little too heavily, his eyes wide and pupils dilated, his hair even seemed a little askew, he looked _debauched_ and Yuri desperately craved more of that appearance

"I have bandaids," the musician finally said, clearing his throat as he rose to his feet and walked over to the messenger bag in the corner

He could faintly hear Viktor mumble a quiet _"The fuck...?"_ under his breath, but he tried not to focus on that too much

"I ah.... don't think I really need a bandaid Yuri.... it doesn't look like it's bleeding anymore...."

"Don't be silly Viktor, you don't want an open wound to touch your work now do you? Even if it isn't bleeding at the moment, that's still a sanitation risk,"

"Ah.. I-I suppose...."

He couldn't help feeling a smile flutter across his face upon Yuri presenting him with a Disney bandaid, a quiet chuckle leaving his throat as the musician unwrapped it and gently wrapped the bandage around his thumb

"Ariel huh?"

"Yeah, Disney princesses are all I have on me I'm afraid, I'm sorry,"

"Oh don't apologize! She's my second favorite!"

"Oh really? And who's your favorite favorite?" Yuri asked playfully

"Elsa, are you kidding? She's awesome,"

Yuri gave a laugh, leaning up to kiss Viktor's cheek

"Well I'm glad we agree that Elsa is awesome, but honestly Ariel is still my favorite favorite,"

"Oh really? Can I ask why?" Viktor asked curiously, though he mostly just earned a shrug in response

"I grew up with her, The Little Mermaid was one of the first Disney movies I ever saw and it was.... like nothing else... I admired Ariel's singing so much, I wanted to sing too, the first song I ever learned was 'Part Of Your World', and knowing how badly Ariel just wanted to dance but what a long shot that was kind of mirrored how much I wanted to be a singer even though I knew I likely never would be one, because really, it's a one in a million shot to make, you know? I even managed to hunt down the Little Mermaid TV series a while back to watch online but I only ever saw a few episodes, sadly, price of VHS going out of style I guess,"

Yeah... Viktor could relate to that, and he could relate to Yuri's affinity for The Little Mermaid too, Viktor himself had first wanted to be a designer after seeing Cinderella's Fairy Godmother make her dress, after all...

"But, now that the childhood backstory has been revealed, what were you saying about my dumb costume idea?"

"Oh!!!" Viktor gasped, evidently having forgotten their conversation until just then

"Yuri it isn't dumb at all!! I love it! We could do hot couture murder fashion!!"

"I think you mean 'haute couture' Viktor,"

"No no I mean 'hot', we're going to look fucking hot!"

Truthfully, and in all of the best ways, Yuri had never laughed as much as he had since he met Viktor

"Viktor you know I was kidding, right?"

"But you shouldn't have been!!! Oh come on Yuri please? It would be so snazzy! I could design something GREAT!"

"I don't know.... doesn't it feel a little on the nose...?"

"Yes, which is why it would be great!"

"I still don't know, I mean, murder couture sounds more like a MET gala theme than a Halloween costume..."

"Oh don't worry, I'll still make it very costumey, very horror, although someday if I ever get invited to the MET, I'm TOTALLY making murder fashion! It's going to be great! Fabric bones and ruby blood... so cool!!"

"You... could always just come with me as my guest..." Yuri offered shyly, adjusting his glasses

Viktor was... stunned, and silent, and looked as if he had just been slapped in the face with a dead fish

"I-I just.. I mean... well.... I've already gotten my invite to next year's, you know... a-and um.... well, usually I have to choose which fashion house I attend as the guest for- well, I mean, Minako does, not me personally because I.. I'm not a fashion person, but... well... since I'm considered one of the... big spectacles.. I could always choose to invite my own designer instead, o-ofcourse you'd have to be approved of by the committee but I can push for it! I can just get Minako to make a few calls and um-... well.... i-if you... want to...?"

Viktor's bottom lip trembled, and for a moment, Yuri feared that he had really and truly fucked up...

Right until Viktor slammed himself forward and tackled Yuri in a giant hug, practically bursting into tears as he hugged his boyfriend

"Are you sure!?" he all but screamed

"O-Ofcourse I'm sure!!" Yuri laughed, relieved that Viktor was crying from _joy_ and not _distress_

"B-But... but Yuri...." Viktor mumbled, pausing and sitting up half-way, enough to be straddling Yuri, but not so much that he could balance without keeping his hand on the floor ahead of him

"Don't get me wrong, I would never, ever, EVER, break up with you- not in a billion years!- but... well.... the gala isn't until May, we're in September.... that's so far away... what if something happens and we.. end things?"

"It doesn't matter, you're still my friend Viktor, and even if that were to end too- wich I **highly** doubt would happen- you're an amazing designer who deserves to be there, and the only designer who's clothes I've ever actually cared about at all, that means alot, so.... I'd like to take you as my date, but _this_ invitation is as my designer... ok? Understand?"

Viktor nodded shakily, sniffling as tears dripped out of his eyes once more, a squeaky "okay" leaving him as he leaned down to hug Yuri again

"Oh Yuri, I adore you so... you're the best thing that's ever happened to me..." he breathed, squeezing Yuri a little bit tighter

"And you're the best thing that's ever been mine," Yuri said quietly, which had the desired effect of causing Viktor to pause and sit up again, staring at Yuri in disbelief

"Did you seriously just quote that at me?" he laughed

Yuri shrugged, moving one hand to rest on Viktor's thigh to help him stay in place as he sat up, the designer now held carefully in his lap as Yuri's other hand moved up to cup his face

"All of my love songs have always been just fairytales Viktor, but... now they can be about you, so... you'll have to get used to this,"

"Yuri..." Viktor breathed, his expression warm, shy, and utterly bursting with joy as Yuri leaned up and gave him a slow, loving kiss, relaxing into Viktor's hold as the other man wrapped his arms around Yuri's back

"What about the costumes for... whatever surprise you're planning?" Yuri asked quietly

"Oh I thought of something just a moment ago... but those will have to be a surprise too, yes?"

"If you say so," Yuri grinned, closing his eyes and catching Viktor in another kiss

He'd have to help Viktor speed through the rest of his alterations later, right now, they had far more important things to do

_I want to wear his initial on a chain around my neck_

"I want this,"

Yuri looked skeptical, but Viktor was serious

He sat up further and pulled Yuri into his lap, the uncertainty on his face was killing Viktor, but he was determined to make Yuri feel as confident in this decision as he felt

"Yuri we can't hide forever, nor do I want to, and.... yes, it will be hard, it might be hell... this might be hell that I'm asking you for, but every night I'll fall asleep in your arms and that will be heaven, and I'd live through a billion hells for a single _glimpse_ of heaven with you,"

"You should have been a song writer, you'll have to write a song for me someday," Yuri breathed, leaning closer and gently resting his forehead against Viktor's

"Is that a yes?"

Yuri gave a shuddering exhale, clearly not ready to really answer yet, but....

He nodded slowly, and Viktor beamed, cupping Yuri's face and giving him a soft, slow kiss

"I adore you Yuri.... and your world may be ... a thousand times more treacherous than I could ever understand, but I still want it, because I want _you_ , I want all of you, every last part, even the parts that may be the end of me, I still want them, otherwise what's the point? I'm all or nothing baby, I'm ride or die, if I can't have it all then what's the point in having any of it?"

"One day," Yuri began, sighing and pushing back to stare into Viktor's eyes

" _One day_ , Viktor Nikiforov, you are going to write a song for me,"

Viktor laughed, joyous and adoring, and nodded at Yuri's request

"Sure, but don't hold your breath, I'm still working on that dress I owe you," he winked

"I think I can stand waiting for you, but I mean it about that song,"

"I hear you, zolotse, and you shall have it.... one day,"

Yuri quirked an eyebrow up, curiosity brimming in his expression

"Zolo...ts...e..? What does that mean?"

" _My gold_ , to me, Yuri, you are gold, nothing less,"

Yuri smiled back just as sweetly, leaning closer and giving Viktor a hug, his arms around Viktor's neck, holding him close as he pressed a kiss to the corner of Viktor's mouth

"Then.... can I call you my lover?"

"You mean like the album?" Viktor grinned

"Yeah.... the noun... the song... the album... I want you as my lover, Viktor,"

"You've got me," Viktor breathed, plunging forward and kissing Yuri again

Saturday morning, having slept over at the studio, having worked until late into the night on the dresses, they'd fallen asleep on the air mattress Viktor kept there for occasions like that, and now it was an overcast day, just after noon, and Yuri was in his lap and everything felt heavenly

And if this was Heaven, Viktor decided, he wouldn't mind experiencing every single level of hell

He could withstand that, day after day, hour after hour, if he could spend each night in Heaven

"So... how do you want to go about this then?" Yuri asked quietly, finally pulling his lips away, one hand resting against Viktor's chest as their foreheads stayed resting against eachother

Viktor's arms moved to curl around Yuri's waist, his fingers steepled together, resting over the base of Yuri's spine as he stared up into his lover's beautiful honey-amber eyes

He wanted to say "however you want", but that wouldn't result in anything too fun

Yuri was a fun person, but when it came to his career and his public image, he had a tendency to be a little too professional about everything, likely influenced in part by his very professional manager and in part by Yuri's anxiety

Viktor could respect that and understand that, but he still wasn't about to let this opportunity go by without coming out in a fashion truly deserving of a couple of queer icons like themselves

"I... _might_ have an idea," he replied with a small smirk, his eyes practically glittering as he stared up into Yuri's eyes, much to the musician's slight concern

"Oh?" Yuri hummed

"Well by all means, shoot,"

"Ok, well, first, it's going to involve Disneyland,"

Yuri raised his eyebrows, curiosity and confusion clear in his gaze

".....Alright....."

"And your initials,"

"Is this about that crop top?"

"Partly yes, but there's one other thing I want,"

"Ok, go for it,"

Viktor grinned, his eyes practically glittering as he reached onto the floor across from them, grabbing his cell phone and turning it on

Ah... he had a few missed calls and texts... but he'd get to those later

He typed away eagerly, face turning a light shade of pink as he stared at the image that appeared, carefully shifting the phone to show his boyfriend

"...You want that?" Yuri asked quietly, his eyes flicking up from the phone screen to Viktor's face

"Yeah, I do....... do you know what it means?"

"I do," Yuri said softly, leaning down and pressing his hands against the mattress, on both sides of Viktor's head

"You really want me that way?"

"Oh Yuri," Viktor breathed, wrapping his arms around Yuri's neck and dragging him down into another kiss

"You're all I've _ever_ wanted- in any way, in _every_ way.... forever and always, I mean it baby,"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Title song:
> 
> Scene break titles:
> 
> o.Mine- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPBwXKgDTdE  
> o.Call It What You Want- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V54CEElTF_U


	5. I Think He Knows

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited by Venom <3

_And you know for me it's always you_

Disneyland Anaheim has annual Gay Days- the first weekend of October

Yuri isn't even surprised that Viktor decides this is going to be the place where they finally come out to the public as a couple

It's actually impressive, the kind of thought that he put behind it

Instead of making it a stuffy occasion and making their relationship something that they're exposing, the way one might expose a dirty secret, confessing to some sort of sin by making a public statement or selling themselves to the very people who would rip them to shreds in the future by calling for the paparazzi or allowing the paparazzi to have them, he instead thought that Disneyland would be perfect as it would be the general public taking photos and updating social media who would most likely get their first relationship photos

No one would be profiting from it so it wouldn't feel like they were selling their relationship, and it would be free and easy and just... the two of them allowing themselves to live their lives, so it wouldn't feel like exposing a secret so much as merely being themselves and being with eachother, the public finding out just so happened to be a consequence

Yuri loved it, he thought it was a perfect idea

"Are you sure about wearing that Viktor? I mean, you're supposed to wear red on Gay Days right?"

"That's what the jacket is for!" Viktor smiled as he popped the lapels of his red leather jacket

"Granted in the California heat I'll probably burn up, but I can just wrap it around my waist," he shrugged easily

Yuri couldn't help himself, he found himself smiling as he glanced at Viktor in the mirror

He was driving Viktor's Cadillac again, the cool autumn breeze felt incredible against his anxiety ridden, overly warm flesh, and seeing Viktor so thoroughly enjoying himself, singing along to Troye Sivan and acting just as blissfully carefree as he had that night when they drove out of the city back in September....

It made him ease, it settled him, and a sense of peace fell over him as he drove

The sun was shining brightly, almost as brightly as Viktor's smile, and he could feel the nervousness starting to slowly seep away

_"Yeah I bloom, I bloom, just for you! I bloom just for you! Come on baby play me like a love song-"_

Close....

They were close

In only a couple of hours, their lives would change

It sounded dramatic, but it was true

Yuri had never been in a romantic relationship before, and although the media had speculated, they had never had a confirmation to actually fire against him, and Viktor....

Viktor may have been a celebrity designer, but very few people ever knew who he was outside of the circles he ran in, and if he had ever had to deal with paparazzi, it had always been at actual celebrity events, not in his day-to-day life

He had never experienced the fright and frustration of trying to get a cup of coffee and someone suddenly jumping out at you with a camera...

He reached out and curled one hand briefly around his boyfriend’s, squeezing it tightly as Viktor belted along to the gay anthem of 2018

For him, Yuri knew, he could get through this

For Viktor, he could handle whatever came their way, and he could do it happily

Viktor, seeming to almost sense Yuri's unease, turned his attention back to his boyfriend for a moment, leaning over and kissing his cheek affectionately

" _Ya lyublyu tebya_ , Yuri,"

Yuri wasn't sure what he said, but he only nodded, smiling peacefully and feeling a shiver of anticipation run against his spine as he turned down the correct road, Disneyland right in sight

Yeah.....

He could do this more than happily

_I’m the only one of me, baby that’s the fun of me_  
You’re the only one of you, baby that’s the fun of you  
And I promise that nobody’s gonna love you like me 

“Have you ever been here during Halloween Yuri?”

Yuri shook his head, watching as Viktor, indeed, wrapped his jacket around his waist, so that his “I Heart Y.K.” crop top was on _full_ display, along with his high-waisted jean shorts and the rainbow wristbands decorating both arms, but what was really holding Yuri’s attention was still the “choker”

A gorgeous black leather collar with little blue roses and silver studs to accent it, with a silver, heart shaped “Y.K.” tag attached

Yuri had warned him that it looked a little too kinky to wear out in public- especially to a place like Disneyland- but so far there hadn’t been any comments about it

Phichit was on Social Media Monitoring Duty wile he and Chris enjoyed the park themselves- partly so he could call Yuri and tell him when the reports of his “new” romance were starting to crop up, and partly to make sure that Yuri was going to be safe

Phichit really didn’t like him being in such a public place- such a crowded and hectic public place- without any kind of security around him, but upon suggesting that maybe Phichit tag along on their date, Viktor had gotten rather offended and insisted that he could take care of Yuri _just fine_

Yuri thought he could more or less take care of himself but he wasn’t about to argue with them

The double date that wasn’t actually a double date had seemed like a reasonable compromise, so that if Yuri did end up in a bad situation, he could just call Phichit and Phichit could notify security

It seemed like a good enough plan

…

He hoped

“I haven’t,” Yuri replied, watching with slight amusement as Viktor bit into the rainbow-sprinkled, Mickey Mouse shaped rice krispie treat he had just bought

He looked like something of a disaster, between the clothes, the Gucci sunglasses he had insisted on sporting, and the sugary treat, but he was an adorable disaster

“I haven’t really been to Disneyland much, just once when I was younger,”

“Really? Why-... oh… let me guess, because you’re a famous celebrity and it gets frustrating trying to enjoy the park when people keep rushing up to you?”

“Pretty much, and I would never want to have a private park day or anything like that, it just wouldn’t be fair to others,”

Speaking of people running up to them, Yuri had already dealt with atleast two dozen fans since his arrival, wich… actually wasn’t as bad as he had feared…

“You’re so amazing Yuri,” Viktor sighed dreamily, offering the rice krispie treat to Yuri expectantly

The musician found himself smiling, leaning down and biting an ear off of the ball of crunchy sugar and food coloring

“I don’t see how,”

“You never do, that’s your problem,” Viktor snorted teasingly

“BUT! Don’t worry, someday I’ll show you exactly how amazing you are, and until then, I’m going to introduce you to all of the best things about Disneyland, especially at Halloween! Lucky for you I happen to make quite the habit of coming here,”

“Lucky me indeed,” Yuri grinned back, his hand curling around Viktor’s as they walked

Viktor was insistent on visiting The Haunted Mansion first- well, first after stopping at a treat shop and taking a brief detour to look for rainbow colored Mickey ears, which they had yet to find, but Viktor was confident they’d come across it soon- and so, to The Haunted Mansion they went

“I think we should turn this into a tradition, darling, Gay Days at Disney, every year, it’ll be fun!”

“You want to?” Yuri grinned, pausing suddenly at the sight of two teenage girls running towards him waving pens and notebooks

Here we go again…

“A-Are you Yuri Katsuki?” one of them asked, grinning up at him adoringly, her eyes big and her braces glinting a little in the sunlight

“I am,”

He shrank back a little as the two of them let out a horrendous scream, but he had learned a _very_ long time ago how to keep his cool when his nerves were set on edge by fans

“C-Can we get your autograph?” the other girl asked shyly, holding her pen out to him

“A-And a picture?”

“Ofcourse,” he smiled sweetly, taking the pen and one of the notebooks

He glanced over his shoulder at Viktor, who seemed as amused as ever, munching on his treat and half-dancing to the music playing over the speakers around them

It was _adorable_

“Is… is that your boyfriend?” one of the girls whispered, wrapping her arms around her friend’s shoulders and pointing at Viktor with “subtlety” (not nearly as much to qualify but she _thought_ she was being subtle atleast)

“Yeah, he is,” Yuri confirmed, much to the squealing delight of the girls as he signed the other notebook

“Viktor, come introduce yourself,” he grinned over his shoulder, effectively taking Viktor by surprise

But he was more than delighted to skip closer and wrap an arm around Yuri’s shoulders

“Hello!! Want me to take the picture for you?” he offered

The girls looked as though they had just won the lottery and immediately scattered out replies of “Yes"es and "Oh my god"s as they both handed their phones over

Yuri noticed briefly that one of them had a _"Lover”_ phone case and immediately felt a slight thrill of delight

He was glad to see they liked the new album

The girls crowded Yuri on both sides, posing excitedly with him as he smiled fondly and flashed the peace sign- because he wasn’t hip enough to know any other poses and he had made peace with _that_ a long time ago too

He noticed something else as Viktor snapped photos though, they were both wearing red…

The one with braces was wearing a violet in her hair, and the other had a violet pin on her wristband

_Oh_

Instantly he was even more glad that he had a “Take photos and do autographs if _at all_ possible” policy, even when he was trying to have a date

He loved all of his fans, but he knew how important it could be for queer fans in particular to interact with him when they saw him

“C-Can we get one with you too?” the girl with braces asked anxiously as Viktor returned her phone

And Viktor, of course, thought that was possibly the best thing that had ever happened to him, gasping like a fanboy and eagerly nodding

“Yes! Yes! Ofcourse!!”

Immediately he wrapped his arms around Yuri, squeezing him and kissing his cheek as a pose for the selfies that the girls were taking, much to Yuri’s laughing amusement

The girls hurriedly thanked them, showered Yuri in a few praises, and then ran back screaming to an older woman who was standing a few feet away, who he overheard the girl without braces excitedly screaming “MOM!!” at

“That never gets old,” Viktor laughed cheerfully, stepping back as Yuri straightened out his red Little Mermaid shirt and the bisexual pride colored ascot he had been convinced to wear

“Oh really? Give it a day,” Yuri teased

Viktor just shrugged, kissing Yuri’s cheek again- though this time, just because he could, rather than for a photo

“You say that, but I saw how you lit up, you like it, admit it,”

“I do sometimes,” Yuri confessed with an easy shrug, taking Viktor’s hand again and grabbing the map from his back pocket, hoping that he could find their way to The Haunted Mansion sooner rather than later

“I can tell, it’s great you know, I bet alot of people would have really started getting sick of that kind of attention by now, especially when you’re trying to have a private moment, but you handle it well,”

“Thank you,” Yuri hummed, leaning up to kiss the corner of Viktor’s mouth- just because he could- and then turning his attention to the map

Though it didn’t stay there for long, he had no more than located the icon for The Haunted Mansion before his phone started ringing, Phichit’s familiar “Hakuna Matata" ringtone blaring from his pocket

"Mm, is it weird that I never see you listening to your own music?” Viktor asked curiously as Yuri pulled his phone out

“I don’t know, is it weird that I never see you wearing your own designs?”

“…Divine point my love,”

Yuri blew him a kiss then as he answered, handing the map to Viktor so they didn’t waste any more time

“Hey Phich,”

_“Well, congratulations, you are OFFICIALLY in a relationship,”_

“Oh really?” Yuri laughed

_“Yep, the news has hit- well, if a place with the word ‘gossip’ in the title can really be defined as 'news’, but I sent you a link,”_

“Thanks Phich, how’s the date going?”

_“Really well!! We’re on our way to Space Mountain, what about you guys? How’s your date going Yuri?”_

Yuri paused, glancing at Viktor over his shoulder as he seemingly attempted to turn the map upside down to find his directions

“ _Incredibly_ ,” Yuri replied sincerely

_“Aww that’s so great!! Hey, we should meet up later and have dinner, or at the very least see the parade together,”_

“I think that’s doable,”

_“Perfect!! I’ll call again later, I’ve gotta go, Chris just brought me ice cream,”_

“Ok, talk to you later Phich, enjoy yourself,” Yuri chuckled, hanging up a second later and biting his lip as he watched Viktor _still_ attempting to figure out the map, which he just decided to gently take from him instead

“Well? How are things?” Viktor asked, evidently deciding not to comment on his lack of map skills

“Going well, the news has hit, Phichit sent a link,”

Viktor gasped excitedly, grabbing for Yuri’s phone- which he handed over willingly- as Yuri decided to focus on the map

“OOoh!! Listen to this snazzy title!! _Yuri Katsuki Unveils New **'Lover’** on Disney Date_! That’s a pretty cute one,”

“Alot better than some of the others they’ve hit me with over the years,” Yuri agreed, finally getting his bearings on the map and the directions they needed to go in

“Ahh… it’s calling me 'Mystery Man’, that’s so insulting! Do your research your kumquats! I may not be a pop star but I’m not a normie either!”

“Did you really just reference Monster High for that?” Yuri snorted teasingly, grabbing Viktor’s hand to start leading him in the right direction, not minding doing the steering for them while Viktor read

“Well what else am I going to call a non-celebrity? A civilian?”

…

Actually he kind of had a point

“Ah! It seems pretty positive Yuri! They think we’re cute! And they even like my shirt!!”

“What about the collar? Did they reference that?”

“They think it’s a choker,”

Yuri snorted, relieved but also amused

“I told you people weren’t that smart,” Viktor winked

Funny, Yuri remembered making a similar comment when the murder post was released unto the world…

Great minds really must think alike then

“It seems really positive Yuri, this is great!!”

“It seems positive _now_ but give it an hour, it was positive when the rumors started that Otabek Altin and I were dating too, you saw how that ended,”

“Oh that won’t happen with us, and even if they attack us, I don’t care, I’ll defend my Yuri from everything, from everyone, always,”

Yuri smiled sweetly, leaning up to kiss Viktor lovingly as they walked

He wouldn’t rain on this parade anymore, the warning was out there, and he supposed as long as he had prepared Viktor, he should try to enjoy the positivity while it lasted

“You’re a sweetheart Viktor, you know that right? And that I’ll always defend you too? No matter what?”

“I know~” Viktor grinned cheekily

“Also, if it makes any difference to you at all, you should know that Otabek was nothing more than amused by those rumors, and he likes working with you alot,”

That stopped Yuri dead in his tracks, his face turning slightly pale as he turned to stare at Viktor in confusion and concern

“…How would you know that…?”

“Ah, Otabek is a friend of mine, it’s a fairly new friendship but we’ve talked about you a few times when Yura’s not around,”

“Yura…?”

“Yuri Plisetsky, didn’t I ever mention that he was my friend?”

Given the utterly horrified look on Yuri’s face at that information, Viktor would guess not

“W-Wha….. if you knew the other Yuri then why would you ask about my not-feud with him!?”

“When did I do that?” Viktor asked with a tilt of his head

“The night we got together? When we played truth or truth in that hotel room?”

“…Oh, did I really do that?”

Yuri looked as though a bomb had exploded in his face

“Viktor!! How did this slip your mind!?”

“...I don’t know, I was tired that night,”

“You never thought it might be concerning that you’re now dating the guy who your friend once said he wanted to 'choke with his own entrails’?!”

“When did Yura say that? That was so rude….”

Yuri just… he just stared for a while… wondering distantly if there was a cure out there for Viktor’s apparent memory loss issues

Or maybe he really _hadn’t_ heard the threat that traveled around the world over night from a few years back, but Yuri found that kind of hard to believe considering it had been fucking _everywhere_ for _weeks_

“How are you even friends with him?” Yuri asked slowly

He didn’t mean it in the “That guy is an asshole and I disapprove” sort of way, but more in the “How, out of every human being on this planet, did you end up being friends with one of the ones that hates me the most?” sort of way

“We share a godfather,” Viktor shrugged simply, squeezing Yuri’s hand and starting to walk once again

“Well, technically, Yakov is my uncle, he’s Yura’s godfather, but anyway, we would always see eachother when Yura would come here for skating competitions and I’d go to support him at the big competitions every year like the GPF, when Yura and Otabek started dating a couple of years ago he demanded to move here and we’ve seen eachother alot more ever since then, I really only even met Otabek a little less than a year ago, but he’s a chill guy, I like him,”

“Viktor, aren’t you at all concerned that you’re dating your almost-sorta-relative’s worst enemy…?”

“Oh you aren’t his worst enemy!” Viktor laughed cheerfully

“No no, that would be JJ Leroy,”

“The rock singer who also hates my guts…?”

“Yeah, if I were dating JJ- which, _ew_ \- then I would be worried, Yura would skin me alive and wear my pelt for a coat,”

“I hesitate to ask this but what’s the deal with them…?”

“Long, graphically violent story, not the sort of thing I should be repeating when children could overhear,”

Yuri could respect that he supposed, but he was still more than a little worried to know that Yuri Plisetsky- who Yuri was kind of entirely confident could and happily _would_ kill him if ever given the chance- was now in some weird way related to his boyfriend…

“Hey,” Viktor said suddenly, gently tilting Yuri’s head up and smiling softly at him

“Yuri, you’ve got me, ok? Everything is fine, I’m not going to let anything hurt you, and if Yura’s still got a problem with you, then I’ll have to deal with him, don’t let this ruin a good time though hm? We’re at Disneyland! We’re gay!! ....Well… gay and bi! We’re out and we’re proud and we’re celebrating! Everything’s awesome- and you can’t spell 'awesome’ without 'me’,” he winked playfully

Yuri laughed, relieved as some of his tension drained, and shook his head, looping their arms together and leaning closer to Viktor as they headed towards The Haunted Mansion

“You’re right,” he promised quietly

“You’re absolutely right,”

_And all at once, you are the one I have been waiting for_

“I just got an e-mail from Celestino, he’s doing the video,”

“Oh!! That’s great!” Viktor grinned excitedly, pushing his keycard into the slot at the hotel room door

“That means we can get working on it soon right?”

“Yeah, he’s just wrapping another project and then he’ll be talking to me on Tuesday on a video call about what dates work well,”

“Ah! _Klassno_!! That’s great!” he beamed, opening the door for his lover- a word that still made Viktor’s heart do flip-flops- and watching in delight as Yuri dragged himself into the room, setting their shopping bags on the floor and immediately jumping onto the bed

“Yeah it is, I also heard from Minako this morning and she’s submitted you for approval to the committee for the gala,”

“Wow, perfect! Things are going really well!” Viktor beamed, as he shut the door behind him, setting the overnight bag he and Yuri were sharing on the floor next to the shopping bags and moving to flop down next to his boyfriend

“Yeah they are, it.. almost scares me, it makes me wonder when the other shoe is going to drop, when all hell is going to break loose… nothing is ever this good for this long…”

Viktor rolled his eyes, shifting onto his side and cupping Yuri’s face

“Don’t be such a pessimist, maybe things will stay this good, and… even if they don’t, you’ll still always have me, I promise,” he insisted, taking Yuri’s hand and kissing his fingers lovingly

Yuri smiled adoringly and moved closer, flipping them carefully so that Viktor was laying on his back and Yuri was straddling him, one hand gently placed on Viktor’s chest as the other moved down to start dragging his fingers adoringly through his hair

“Viktor… I-”

Ah… damn….

Viktor’s phone was going off…

“I’ll silen-”

“You should get that,” Yuri insisted softly, leaning down to kiss Viktor’s forehead and climbing off of him, much to Viktor’s disappointment

They still hadn’t had sex yet- wich was fine!! It was still early in their relationship, and Yuri was a virgin, and even if they never had sex, that would still be more than fine!

….

Viktor just hated his phone for ruining what could have been a moment that approached that peak…

Huffing irritably, he took his phone out of his pocket, watching as Yuri opened the overnight bag and grabbed the set of pajamas he had brought with him

Perhaps worst of all was that he recognized this ringtone and knew damn good and well that he was about to have his ass eaten- and not in the fun way

Clearing his throat, he decided to just get it over with and clicked the green button

“Yura!! How are you? How-”

_“VIKTOOOR!!!!! SHUT. THE FUCK. UP!! ARE YOU SERIOUSLY DATING THAT FAT FUCKING PIG!?”_

Viktor winced, pulling the phone away from his ear and watching with a sinking stomach as Yuri hurried into the bathroom and shut the door behind him

Evidently he either heard Yura’s outburst… or didn’t want to _risk_ hearing it….

Great….

“Yuri,” he said slowly, his voice taking a dangerous edge onto it

“Who ever taught you to be so rude and flat out mean? Or bodyshame people? I know it wasn’t your sweet grandfather-”

_“Shut the fuck up about my grandfather!! Goddammit Viktor!! Do you have any idea what you’re doing!?”_

“Yeah, I’m finally dating the love of my life, what-”

_“You are dating a fucking faker!! That goddamn bitch is nothing but manipulative pop star trash who’s fooled everyone on earth, including you, and is just trying to use his queer identity and mental illness to gain sympathy-”_

“Yuri, that’s crossing a HUGE line-”

_“You don’t know the truth Viktor!!! You don’t know the truth and you’re just letting him trick you like he’s tricked everybody else-!”_

“If I don’t know the truth then why don’t you _tell_ me the truth, _Yurochka_?” Viktor asked icily, hoping that the diminutive would get his attention, as obviously his full name wasn’t doing the job of portraying Viktor’s anger like he had hoped it would

“And how many times have I asked you to just call me Vitya anyway? You’re really hurting my feelings here Yur-”

All of a sudden, before Viktor could possibly finish that sentence, there was a scream from the bathroom, catching Viktor’s attention just quickly enough for him to watch the door swing open and a startled, stunned looking Yuri stand before him, legs apart, not wearing pants- awww- and pointing at Viktor as if he were accusing the designer of some sort of crime

“ _YOU’RE VITYA!?!?_ ”

……

“… Yura… I’ll call you back…”

He didn’t even give Yura time to reply to that before hanging up on him, and it was really just as well that that was the case, considering that a second later, he had his arms full of Yuri, who had charged at him and jumped as if he were trying to tackle a thief

“Y-Yuri, wha-”

“YOU’RE VITYA!!” he screamed a second time, cupping Viktor’s face in both hands and staring down at him

“E-Excuse me-?”

“Think back, think back to the Halloween party last year, think _hard_ ,”

Viktor blinked slowly, confusion written across his face, right up until Yuri sighed, took his glasses off, mimicked a mask over his eyes with his fingers, then forced a smirk- not genuine, but evidently trying to hint at whatever he wanted Viktor to remember

“I’ll be your butterfly,”

Viktor inhaled, a sensation unlike anything he could ever hope to explain rushing through him as the memories slammed full force into him

“… _My butterfly…._ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> "Bloom"- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41PTANtZFW0
> 
> Russian translation- "I love you"/"Amazing!"
> 
> Chapter title song: I Think He Knows- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2d1wKn-oJnA
> 
> Scene break titles:
> 
> o.I Know Places- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M04ZnCya4M4  
> o.Me!- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuXNumBwDOM  
> o.King Of My Heart- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edMdYbbtBys


	6. Enchanted

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited by Venom <3

_This night is sparkling, don’t you let it go  
I’m wonderstruck, blushing all the way home  
I’ll spend forever wondering if you knew  
I was enchanted to meet you_

**October 29th, one year ago**

God Yuri hated this

He hated being here and he just wanted to go home…

He always hated these stupid parties and he always wished he didn’t have to socialize with all of these people- most of them he didn’t know- but…

He knew he had to

“It’s for your image” Minako always said

“You need to get out there” Phichit would encourage

“How will you find your Prince Charming without trying?” Mari huffed everytime they talked

And so here he was, dressed up in an elegant black dress and heels that he couldn’t comfortably walk in, with every bare inch of flesh delicately painted to look like scales, his hands covered in black, leather, fingerless gloves, his eyes itched from the yellow, reptilian like colored contacts he was wearing, the fangs in his mouth were starting to cause his jaw to hurt and his gums to itch and he had to keep adjusting the feathery black masquerade mask he was wearing

He insisted it didn’t fit the snake motif but Phichit had said he was “a fierce anaconda dressed up for the ball, meant to enthrall men!”

…

Yuri didn’t want to know what that meant, so he went with it

Distantly, he wondered how long he would have to stay before going home, climbing up onto the barstool in front of him and sighing as he waited on the bartender’s attention

He already had a headache, the make up was irritating and the contacts itched, his feet hurt from the shoes and he just… didn’t feel like being out right now anyway

But on the bright side, atleast no one recognized him

“Hey, will you toast me?”

Blinking, Yuri turned in his seat, having not noticed the man beside him until just then

He was beautiful, for what it was worth, also wearing a masquerade mask, in an absolutely _gorgeous_ lavender, blue, and green ball gown with long tails and heels, his hair looked like it was frosted blonde with some lavender and green streaks in it- though it was hard to be sure of the color in this lighting-, shoulder-length, and tied back in a small series of braids, his masquerade mask was just as elaborate as the dress, the same color scheme and covered in feathers

He was the most striking individual Yuri had ever seen, and he felt completely and utterly awestruck by him

He felt… _wonderstruck_ …. by him

And _that_ was a word he certainly hadn’t used in a while

“Toast. Me.” the stranger repeated, his voice thick with a heavy Russian accent, holding up a glass of what smelled like vodka and tilting it back and forth

“O-Oh um.. sure…. what are we toasting to?” he asked, finally noticing that the bartender had arrived and quickly ordering a virgin daiquiri

Either the stranger didn’t notice or didn’t care that Yuri wasn’t drinking booze, he sort of hoped it was the latter, he always hated explaining that he didn’t drink (in public)

“To loneliness!” the stranger shouted back, swinging back the rest of his vodka and crashing the glass down on the counter, asking for another in the process

Yuri didn’t think that was a good idea, but who was he to police someone else’s choices?

...Well.. unless they asked him to ofcourse… but that was a much longer story about something he had been recently digging into that had nothing to do with any of this

“Why are we toasting to loneliness?” Yuri decided to ask instead, having to raise his voice just to hear himself speak over the loud music the DJ was playing

“Because my date is an asshole who left with someone else! Because I’m tired of looking for Mr. Right in all of the Mr. Wrongs! Because I’m alone and single and fuck it!” the stranger replied, huffing and propping his elbows up on the counter, burying his face in his hands

Yuri felt immediate sympathy

He had never had a date before but… he could understand how much that must hurt, and with Yuri’s perpetually bleeding heart and propensity for love songs… well….

Carefully, he reached out and gently placed a hand on the stranger’s shoulder, regretting the action when the stranger tensed, but ultimately not pulling away- not considering how much the stranger seemed to appreciate the touch, leaning into it immediately and shifting so that he was sitting closer to Yuri

“What’s wrong with me?” he asked quietly, his voice softer and thinner before

“Why can’t I keep anyone? Why does everyone always leave me? God I’m so-…. why can’t anyone just… fucking love me?”

Yuri swallowed tensely

He wanted to cry

Seeing someone so torn up- and in public, and on Halloween, and all dressed up having clearly hoped to have a fun evening but now experiencing this heartbreak instead….

Yuri’s bleeding heart was working overtime

“Hey… hey…” Yuri said softly, reaching out to gently lift up the stranger’s face, stroking a few loose strands of hair behind his ear and feeling a pang of intense hurt when he saw the tears rolling out of the most beautiful, crystalline blue eyes he had ever seen

“Listen to me, um-... what’s your name?”

“Just call me Vitya,” the stranger sniffed back, looking down and averting his eyes from Yuri’s

“Listen to me Vitya, you are a beautiful person, you are a remarkable, sweet, sensitive, lovely little light of a person, and anyone who doesn’t see that is an idiot, you may not have found your lover yet, but you will someday, he’s out there waiting for you, I just know it, just like mine is out there waiting for me,”

“You…. really think so?” Vitya asked quietly, lifting his head up and looking at Yuri skeptically

“You think... I could find someone to love me?”

“I know that you will,” Yuri promised

“You’re going to find someone, Vitya, who will love you so deeply that you’ll wake up every morning thinking the last night was a dream, you’re going to find someone who will love every last bit of you, from your perfections to your flaws, your bests and your worsts, someone who will love you enough to dance with you all night and love you enough to hold your hand while you cry all night too, someone who loves you enough to work with you, to keep that love going even after the honeymoon phase is over, someone who loves you, and who you’re going to love just as much, you’re going to find that person Vitya, everyone has one out there, you just have to find them, you have to find your lover,”

Vitya nodded shakily, rubbing at his eyes under the mask before leaning forward and wrapping his arms gently around Yuri, giving him a light, warm hug

“Thank you…” he breathed

“You’re welcome,” Yuri smiled softly, wrapping his arms around Vitya’s back and giving him a hug back in response

He felt much more muscular now that Yuri was holding him, completely deceptive from the generally lithe and feminine form that he looked like upon first glance

Interesting…

“What… makes you so confident in all that anyway? Do you like… write love songs or something?” Vitya asked curiously

“Yeah I do… but… actually it’s my mom who told me all that, she said that there’s someone out there for everyone, someone out there who’s your perfect match, who will love you and be loved by you until the end of time, and that isn’t always someone you sleep with, or someone you date, that lover can be romantic or platonic, and... I don’t know, I guess maybe I’m misusing the word but…”

“No, no you’re not,” Vitya insisted, pushing back a little and smiling shyly at Yuri as he moved one hand up to cup his face

“English can be weird, but in my opinion…. a lover isn’t someone who you sleep with, a lover is someone who loves you, that’s all, who loves you, who you love, it’s…. I wish that it had a different connotation to it because it’s such a beautiful word that isn’t used nearly enough,”

“You’re right, 'lover’ should… really be defined differently,”

“Somebody should write a song like that,” Vitya chuckled softly

“Ooh or maybe an entire album! Just about the different kinds of love, and about loving as a theme, wouldn’t that be pretty?”

Yes….

Yes, it would be very pretty

“It would… I wish I could, but I don’t… I don’t think it would be me, who could do something like that,”

“Hm? Why not?” Vitya asked curiously, leaning his elbow on the counter, his head resting on the heel of his palm as he stared at Yuri, his drink untouched

“I’m not… I’m not good at love,”

“OOoh like that Halsey song!”

“Kinda yes but kinda no, I-… I’m just so bad at it, I’m bad at love, I’m bad at being loved, I -… I’m not.. meant for it, I don’t think,”

“Why do you say that?”

“It’s just… never done anything but hurt me, made me vulnerable and weak, I try to give it and people… rip it apart, I try to look for it and I can’t ever find it… I’m better off staying away from it,”

“Well that’s a shit perspective,” Vitya huffed, rolling his eyes behind his mask

“You just told me all that stuff about how there’s someone for everyone and you don’t take your own advice?”

“I- .. well…. no, it’s not like tha-”

“It’s EXACTLY like that,”

Yuri sighed, shaking his head and chewing his lip

“It’s different for me, I have…. baggage, that I don’t think anyone could ever take on, that anyone could ever want to take on, and I’m not worth all the trouble even if they did,”

Vitya stared at him with skepticism, clearly trying to process what Yuri was saying

“Oh, I see, you’re eating your brain mouse,”

….

Were those words… _supposed_ … to be in the same sentence…?

“… What?”

“You’re supposed to be a snake right? That’s… the scales and the fangs and stuff? Yes?”

“Yes….?”

“Well forgive my crudeness- truly- but snakes eat mice right? You’re eating your brain mouse, is that how you sustain yourself then, Nagini?”

“…Ok, first of all, please don’t remind me,” Yuri noted, trying to suppress a gag

He never would have _chosen_ to represent himself with snakes for the very reason of… _that_.. plaguing his mental images for the rest of the night, but he hadn’t really been the one to choose snakes to symbolize himself with so….

“And second of all, aside from the well placed Harry Potter reference, I’m afraid I don’t understand,”

Vitya rolled his eyes, crossing one leg smoothly over the other

“Ok, in your brain there’s a mouse that makes all of your good feely juices like serotonin, but when you hurt yourself- and that is EXACTLY what you’re doing so don’t try to _lie to me_ or lie to _yourself_ and say that it isn’t- your brain mouse gets clobbered on the head and then how is she ever supposed to keep making serotonin?”

“She?”

“And then you get mad at her because she’s not making serotonin and clobber her again! Leave your poor brain mouse alone Mr. Snake, I’ll give you something much tastier to feed on!”

Yuri couldn’t help it

He couldn’t help it

He burst out laughing all of a sudden, shaking his head and grinning from ear to ear as he grabbed the daiquiri in front of him and took a sip

“No really, please! Please stop torturing the brain mouse, it isn’t her fault!”

Vitya pleaded so prettily, so cutely, Yuri just wanted to hug him and kiss him and tell him everything was ok, give him everything he wanted- even if it was a healthy so-called “brain mouse”

… Wow… he had never felt like this before….

“Where did you even learn about that ridiculous idea?” he snickered

“A friend of mine is a psychologist,” Vitya replied, picking up his drink

“And she learned it from Tumblr,”

“Ah,” Yuri chuckled, watching Vitya sip on the vodka, then wrinkle his nose in distaste

Had enough, maybe?

Yuri hoped so

“But it’s a good concept!” Vitya protested a second later

“No you’re right, it is, it’s a great concept,”

“So then leave your brain mouse alone huh? I bet ever since you got all scaley you’ve been just…. trying to sink your snakey fangs into your brain mo-” Vitya paused, gagging a little and shaking his head

“Nope, nope, can’t keep going with that analogy, going to puke,”

Yuri probably should have been concerned by that, but he was just… amused instead

Vitya was cute, he was adorable, Yuri felt… like he was _falling_ …

“Well if you need me to hold your hair back, just let me know,” he offered, reaching out to gently sweep a few stray strands of Vitya’s hair behind his ear

“…Really?” Vitya asked quietly, offering Yuri a soft smile

“Yeah, really,”

Vitya smiled a little bit more, his face flushed, though Yuri couldn’t tell if it was from blushing or the alcohol…

“You know… I think you’re wrong about the brain mouse, I think I’ve been pretty damn kind to her lately,” Yuri noted as he shifted to turn and face away from the bar

“Really? 'Cause you sound kinda like a jackass to the mouse to me…”

Yuri just shook his head, sighing and looking down at the floor

“Ever since I became the snake… I’ve been more confident than ever, I’ve been more… hard, and cold, and badass… and I haven’t let people hurt me like they used to, so… so I think that the brain mouse is just fine,”

Vitya frowned, leaning a little closer, laying his arms on the counter and his head over his arms

“…You sure about that?” he asked quietly

“'Cause, it sounds to me, like you’ve cut the mouse off from the things it needs to survive and are just waiting on it to die a natural death before eating it yourself, you’re toying with it, you’re making it suffer and lying to yourself and saying that you’re not because you’re pretending to be confident, but… confidence isn’t happiness, your brain mouse doesn’t bake confidence, she bakes happiness, and she can’t do that if you’re depriving her of the things she needs to live- like... love?”

“I can’t help it that I don’t have a lover either,” Yuri said quietly, grabbing his drink and taking another sip

Sure, there was Phichit, and by the standards Yuri described earlier, he supposed Phichit could be defined as a “lover”, but….

But hell, how long would it be before Phichit got sick of him and left him too? He was loyal to a fault but this past year had lowered Yuri’s confidence in people and in _keeping_ people more than ever

“You don’t have to have a lover to love yourself,” Vitya said quietly

“You don’t have to get love from someone else just to have it, that-…. shit, that’s advice I need to take I guess,” he said with a hollow, bitter laugh

“I’m just saying that… that you can love yourself, without having to be loved by someone else, you need to love yourself or your brain mouse won’t survive no matter how many other people love you, you could have a BAJILLION fans all over the world and all of them love you but your mouse will still starve if _you_ don’t love her yourself,”

Yuri’s shoulders sank, exhaling slowly and poking his straw down into the pink drink he was holding, staring at the whipped cream he was poking down further and further into the glass, and trying not to look at Vitya

“I’m not _deserving_ of love,”

“Everyone is deserving of love!!”

“Even serial killers?” Yuri asked flatly, eyebrows raised as he looked over his shoulder at Vitya’s surprised face

“….I guess that depends, are we talking about like ah… the Dexter kind or the Hannibal Lecter kind?”

“Does it matter?”

“Kinda, but that’s not the point,”

Vitya leaned over then, reaching out and gently taking Yuri’s face, his fingers under Yuri’s chin and a stern, determined look on his face

“You are deserving of love,” he said seriously

And it was so simple

It was so simple but it hurt so much

It hurt so _fucking_ much

So much that Yuri felt himself beginning to tear up, his hands shook, and Vitya gently took his glass away from him to set down on the counter

“You are deserving of love,” he repeated, firmer, even more clearly

“ _You are deserving of love_ ,”

Ah dammit

Dammit…..

Dammit……..

He was crying now, having to hide his face in his hands to keep anyone from seeing

Now the roles were reversed and Vitya was leaning over, wrapping an arm around Yuri’s back and hugging him close

“It’s ok… it’s ok, you can cry,” Vitya promised gently

“No… no I can’t, I’ll-”

“ _Cry_ ,” Vitya demanded softly

“I’ll watch your back, and make sure nobody else sees if you don’t want them to, I’ll hold your hand all night while you cry if you want me to,”

Yuri was suddenly thankful for the loud music, it disguised the wail that left his throat as he shook in Vitya’s arms, pressing his face against the stranger’s shoulder and breathing heavily, trying to control himself as Vitya rubbed his back

“It’s ok… it’s ok…..” Vitya repeated quietly

“It’s ok… you can love yourself, you can love and let yourself be loved in return…. I know.. I know it hurts, but it will be worth it,”

Yuri shook his head slowly, fisting his hands in Vitya’s dress and trying to control himself

Vitya may have been watching out for him, but he knew he was on a limited time table here

Sooner or later somebody was going to notice the crying freak at the bar and then- …..

He had _just_ crafted this image for himself

He had _just_ cemented himself as the snake- the image of strength and confidence and fierceness

He couldn’t let himself lose that in a moment of weakness

“I- …. I have _never_ loved myself,” he breathed quietly, forcing himself to look up from Vitya’s shoulder

“I have never loved myself, I’ve always hated-…”

He paused, swallowing back another burst of fresh tears, but Vitya seemed to understand

“But you don’t have to anymore,” he promised, moving his hands down to very gently taking Yuri’s hands, squeezing them in his own

“You can love yourself darling, it’s never too late to start,”

Yuri sobbed again, another line of tears flowing down his cheeks as he felt Vitya squeeze his hands harder

“…How?” he finally asked

Because he was tired, that was the truth of it

He was just so tired and he wanted to stop feeling this way all the time

And if Vitya held the key to answering that for him then dammit, he wanted to take it

“I-… how do I love myself? I-... I’ve become the snake… cold and damning, but strong and invulnerable… I can’t… I can’t love myself like this, I hate myself, I hate myself more and more for it every day… but I’m so SICK of being the mouse… vulnerable and defenseless and… getting eaten alive by everyone and everything around me…. I hate myself like that even _more_! So what do I do? Who do I become? Who could ever love me like this? Least of all myself….”

“I could,” Vitya replied confidently, moving one hand up to cup Yuri’s face, stroking his cheek and smiling sweetly, surely, and pressing their foreheads together

“I could, and you can, who says you have to be a mouse _or_ a snake? Why don’t you be a butterfly instead?”

“A-... butterfly…?”

Where did _that_ fit in with the analogy?

“Yeah… a butterfly, they’re beautiful and vulnerable and strong all at once, they’re transformative and they exist outside of the food chain you’ve established, they exist in a place that’s high enough above the ground that they can just fly away whenever they see danger… but they can also spread their love and beauty wherever they go by _choosing_ to land there, do you see? You can be a butterfly, and who doesn’t love butterflies?”

Yuri _adored_ butterflies

“And look at that, already doing well at your transformation, it looks like you lost your fangs,”

What? When had that happened?

Yuri ran his tongue over his teeth and found with surprise that, indeed, his fangs were gone

Huh….

Without those, he could still bite, but he couldn’t kill

He would still be able to protect himself, but there would be no venom behind him any longer

No fangs, no threat, just…

Just him

Only him

“So what do you say? Will you do it? Will you become a butterfly for me? Pleaaaaaaseee? Be my butterfly!!”

Yuri pursed his lips, nodding slowly

Vitya was right, without him even noticing it, there was a transformation taking place, and he didn’t think he could be the snake any longer

“O-Ok…. ok, yes, I’ll be your butterfly,”

Vitya beamed, excitement clearly painted all over his face

“ _Klassno!!!_ ” he squealed

Yuri smiled sweetly at his enthusiasm, rubbing his eyes and taking a shaking breath

“Hey… Vitya? Let me… let me give you my phone number ok? I don’t want to lose touch with you,” he noted as he reached into the snake-themed purse he had over his shoulder

He had a pen and notepad in there somewhere….

“Vitya!!! Let’s go, you look plastered!!”

Jerking his head up, Yuri watched in horror as Vitya stumbled down from the barstool in front of him

“W-Wait!! Vity-”

“Hey, come find me later,” Vitya grinned, taking Yuri’s hand and giving it a small kiss

“I’ve got to go before I lose my ride, but you can find me, you know my name!” he grinned, blowing Yuri a kiss before letting go of his hand

“I’ll see you later, my butterfly~”

“W-WAIT!” Yuri called, hurrying off of the barstool himself, chasing Vitya through the crowd around them

“Y-Yuri!! My name is Yuri!!” he shouted as he started weaving his way through people

But it was too late, and Yuri had lost sight of him

He was quiet for a few moments, the reality of the situation beginning to sink in as he slowly wrapped his arms around himself, hugging himself, missing Vitya already

The thought of him, of his beauty and his kindness and his-…. _everything_ ….. brought a small blush to his cheeks

He exhaled carefully, closing his eyes and lowering his head

_Please don’t be in love with someone else…._ he thought, the desire to find Vitya again, to be with him, to make him _Yuri’s_ , beginning to fill every vein- every vein that wasn’t already thrumming with this amazing, shaking, delighted, _butterfly flutters_ feeling he had

_Please don’t have somebody waiting on you…_

Even though Vitya said he was stood up, Yuri didn’t know if he was stood up by a first date… or by a steady boyfriend…

What if Vitya’s display of affection had just been a drunken one off caused by his anger at his significant other?

What if they patched things up later and then-…?

No, Yuri shook his head

No, he wouldn’t let himself think of that

He would find Vitya, as soon as he possibly could

He would find him and he would make him _his_

After all, how hard could it possibly be to find someone named _Vitya_ in Hollywood?

With that thought in mind, he carefully took out his contacts and took off his mask, setting both in his purse before taking out the spare pair of glasses that he carried with him- in case of emergency- and staring down at them for a long moment, before finally putting them on and stepping back towards the rest of the party

He felt so much better now

He could see so much more clearly now

_I once believed love would be black and white, but it’s golden_

“My god… _Yuri_ …. _Yuri_!” Viktor breathed, his eyes full of tears as he reached up and wrapped his arms around Yuri tightly, dragging him down into a rough, insistent kiss

A year’s worth of emotion was pent up in that kiss

A year’s worth of longing was drained in that kiss

A year’s worth of love was given in that kiss

“ _Vitya_ ,” Yuri breathed back, which brought a definite chill to Viktor’s spine

“Why…. why did you introduce yourself to me that way? I’ve looked… I’ve looked everywhere for you, I have been searching for you… I have been searching for you, all this time, _my lover_ , I’ve looked everywhere…." 

"I was so drunk,” Viktor breathed, pulling back just enough to stare into Yuri’s watering eyes, to cup his face and clear a few strands of hair out of his face

“I was so drunk that I… I forgot most of what happened that night…. even now, it’s just a blur… except for you, except for…. oh god Yuri….. _you’re my butterfly_ ,” he breathed tearfully

A tear rolled down Yuri’s cheek, of… relief, of amazement, of confusion, of…

Viktor didn’t know what

There were a million emotions seeming to flash across his lover’s face but they all seemed incredibly positive

“I love you,” Yuri breathed quietly, sniffing quietly as he stared down into Viktor’s eyes

“I love you, I love you, I love _myself_ because of you…… I love you,”

Viktor swallowed tightly, surging forward and catching Yuri’s lips in a kiss, practically smothering him in the warm, affectionate gesture

Practically suffocating himself as he drank in only everything that Yuri had to offer, and nothing else

He could die like this and be happy

He could die like this and he wouldn’t go anywhere, because he was already in Heaven

“I love you Yuri,” Viktor breathed, panting softly as he placed both hands against the sides of Yuri’s head, keeping him held close, keeping him in place as he rested his head against Yuri’s

“I love you, I love… I love you, god, I love you Yuri, I love you….”

There was a moment, short perhaps, but it felt like eternity

There was a moment when there was nothing else

When there was only the two of them

Just holding eachother in that same position, just….. breathing eachother in, and letting the realities and surrealities and everything in between start to slowly sink into them

It felt like they were living in a still image

It felt like the rest of the world was gone

Had they died? Had they ascended? Were they in Heaven now?

Was this, in reality, what Heaven was?

Not pearly gates or angels playing harps, not anything anyone could ever describe to you because until you’ve experienced it it’s indescribable?

Was it just…. this?

Was it holding your lover, the one you love most, who loves you the most, in your arms and breathing with them, one on one, with nothing else in the entire universe except the love blossoming between the two of you?

If this was Heaven, Viktor decided, then he would be completely fine with dying to get here

“Vitya…” Yuri breathed, tasting the word on his tongue and smiling a relieved, pure, euphoric kind of smile

Like sunshine blossoming through the clouds for the first time in weeks

Like a superhero who had just won an impossible battle

Like a man who had found Heaven on Earth and accepted that he was holding it in his hands

“Vitya…. can I… can I call you that?”

“Oh Yuri, I _encourage_ it,” Viktor mused with a breathless laugh, going easily as he fell backwards, Yuri crawling on top of him and pressing the heels of his palms into Viktor’s shoulders

The only reason he hadn’t already asked Yuri to call him that was because it was always so hard for non-Russians to adjust to and he wanted to wait until their lives were a little calmer so that Yuri could adjust to it more easily

But hell, he seemed to be adjusting just fine

“My Vitya,” Yuri breathed, leaning down and catching his lips in a soft kiss

“My love,” he practically whispered, his hands coming up to cup Viktor’s face, sweeping his fingers briefly through Viktor’s hair

“My lover,” he added softly, dragging his nails carefully against the sides of Viktor’s face- making sure that his touches were light, gentle, impossible to harm

Viktor shivered, feeling an incredible wave of pleasure- not sexual, necessarily, but… but warmth, and joy, and love- running through his veins as Yuri kissed him again

And god, god……

He could live in that kiss

He moved his hands up to carefully drag against Yuri’s back, his eyes closing as he moved them slowly down to rest on the base of his spine, right around the hem of his shirt

Yuri shivered against him and deepened the kiss, his nails skimming down Viktor’s neck, testing the soft skin beneath them before looping his finger through the D ring of Viktor’s collar, giving a small tug and making Viktor groan into the kiss

Yuri was smirking against his lips, and that only made Viktor feel an even bigger pulse of excitement rush through him

His hands moved down and rested on Yuri’s hips, squeezing gently and letting his fingers press down against his thighs, startling a low moan out of his partner

_Good_

Viktor’s lips twitched up into a smirk, opening his eyes as Yuri started to kiss down the edge of his jaw, drawing a quiet, shuddering breath out of him as he arched himself up closer and tangled his fingers into Yuri’s hair

He felt euphoric

He felt like he was on cloud nine

He was sure- _sure_ \- that nothing could compare to this

Viktor had had sex before, sure, ofcourse, but _this_ , whatever this was….

This wasn’t sex

This wasn’t fucking

This was just…. _loving_

Yuri’s lips felt warm on his neck, pulling a whimpering moan out of him as he started to push his hands beneath the button-down pajama top he was wearing

His skin was cool against Viktor’s touch and it brought a thrill to him

Yuri’s teeth sank into Viktor’s neck and he gasped louder

There was a short shock of pain before even more of that blissfully warm euphoria sank into him

Viktor’s nails scratched against Yuri’s skin as he pushed the shirt up higher and higher

He had memorized the placement of Yuri’s tattoo and he felt another thrill flow through him when he started to run his fingers against the shock of ink against his partner’s pale skin

A snake bursting into butterflies…..

Viktor’s breath stuttered on something that was caught between a laugh and a sob and a moan as the emotions relentlessly poured through him

Yuri’s teeth were still latched onto his neck, he noticed vaguely, as he brought one hand around to start hurriedly undoing the buttons at the top of Yuri’s shirt

He had never wanted anyone this much

He had never craved anyone this much

He had never _belonged_ to anyone this much and he wanted so badly for a moment, for even a moment, to feel that Yuri belonged to him too

He did, ofcourse, he did, Yuri told him all the time

But Viktor wanted to _feel_ it

Yuri finally sat up, licking red blotches off of his lips before pulling the shirt off of himself entirely, revealing a farther expanse of soft skin to Viktor than the designer had ever seen before

Viktor couldn’t help but stare

Ofcourse he couldn’t help but stare

Yuri was beauty incarnate, and he was _his_

“I want to be with you, Vitya,” Yuri breathed softly, moving one hand down to curl gently around Viktor’s thigh and give it a small squeeze

“I want to be _one_ with you,”

Viktor nodded shakily, hastily, swallowing tightly as his heart thundered in his chest and he waited for….. something

He waited for permission, or instructions, or a sign

He waited for _Yuri_

The smaller man smiled gently at him, leaning down to leave a kiss against his forehead before slowly climbing off of Viktor

The designer wanted to ask where he was going, what he was doing, why he had left the safety of the aloneness that Yuri had had just here in his arms, but ultimately he stayed quiet

He couldn’t get any of the words to come out right, but he imagined that was ok

Instead he pushed up to lean up on his elbows and watched Yuri bend over- _damn_ \- and reach into the overnight bag they’d brought with them

He pulled out a cosmetic bag that Viktor had just assumed was full of makeup, and then unzipped it, and revealed instead a small bottle resting inside

A very recognizable bottle

Viktor let go of a shaking breath and collapsed down on the mattress again, shutting his eyes for a moment and exhaling

_Yes_ , he thought to himself, smiling from ear to ear

If what he’d had with Yuri so far was Heaven, he wondered what going the rest of the way with him could possibly compare to……

_We’d still worship this love_

Viktor’s shirt was the next thing to go

Yuri kissed him for what felt like the millionth time and the first time all at once as he ran his fingers through his lover’s silver hair once more, hearing him gasp beneath Yuri’s touch as the musician moved his other hand carefully, smoothly down the expanse of his toned abdomen 

He dragged his lips down Viktor’s jaw, against his throat, licking over the fresh bite mark in his neck and feeling a shudder of excitement, a thrill of pleasure, at the knowledge that he had so thoroughly marked Viktor as his before they had even really started

“Yuri… Yuri… Yuri….!!” Viktor chanted in desperation, his hands tracing the lines of Yuri’s tattoo as the musician dragged his teeth over Viktor’s Adam’s apple

He was actually quite impressed by the way Viktor had apparently managed to memorize the lines of his tattoo

He couldn’t have seen it more than a few times, and yet the way Viktor knew his way around it… it was as though he had been the one to put it there

The thought was actually kind of ironic- in some ways, in the metaphorical ways- Viktor _had_ been the one to put it there

Viktor was all of his butterflies

The man beneath him- the beauty, the god beneath him- choked out another breath as Yuri wrapped his tongue around the ring of Viktor’s collar and gave it a tug

“Yuri!!” Viktor shouted, like a prayer, as he wrapped one leg around Yuri’s waist and reached up to anchor his fingers around one of the neatly carved designs in the headboard with one hand, the other splaying his fingers against Yuri’s ink-coated back

Yuri smirked, he grinned, he resisted the laughter that wanted to bubble up within him, and he tugged again

Viktor had wanted silver

_“You are my gold, zolotse, so gold feels wrong to me… let me be your silver instead,”_

That had been his reasoning

It was cute, it was sweet, and Yuri was incredibly glad for the decision now

There was just something about the glint of the silver that looked even better against the pink of his tongue that he didn’t think he would have gotten from gold

“I love you,” Yuri reminded him softly, pressing a kiss to the center of Viktor’s chest as he moved one hand slowly up Viktor’s arm and grasped his wrist, pressing down gently, pinning him there without any real force behind it as his other hand drifted down to nimbly start undoing the button of his jeans

“How…?” Viktor gasped softly as he rocked his hips upwards

“H-How are you-…. not…? How are you so _good_ -?”

“Because you love me,” Yuri smirked teasingly, nipping Viktor’s ear, letting his fingers dance down little patterns against the soft inside of Viktor’s arm, his other hand deftly tugging down the zipper of the shorts as his fingertips skimmed teasingly against the new patch of skin that had been revealed to him

“What…?”

“You love me,” Yuri repeated, practically singing, as he peppered kisses down Viktor’s shoulder, a thrill of pleasure rushing through him as Viktor’s nails scratched into his tattoo- light enough not to draw blood, sharp enough to pinch, _perfect_

“You love me, so you love this, even more than you would have with anyone else, no matter how objectively ‘good’ I may or may not be,”

“Ha… _no_ ,” Viktor smirked, opening his eyes and moving his hand away from the headboard, using it to cup Yuri’s face instead

“I appreciate the sentiment my darling, but you are a skilled lover, and my love for you has nothing to do with that,” he insisted

Yuri’s eyebrows were raised, his expression was one of disbelief

He disagreed

“You may never see it, you may never believe me, but it’s true,” he hummed simply, carefully shifting further down on the mattress, starting to drag his lips over Viktor’s belly, in little zig-zagging patterns, his fingers hooking into the sides of his shorts and starting to tug them down

“Funny,” Viktor laughed breathlessly

“I was just about to accuse you of that same thing, I will be your one and only Yuri, so you’ll never know anyone else’s touch, and you’ll never realize just how good your’s is,”

It was a bold statement, and Yuri rolled his eyes playfully, but he appreciated the compliment within all the same

Viktor’s hands were dragging over his thighs, his fingertips edging up higher… higher… but consistently backing down, and Yuri wasn’t sure if Viktor was teasing or just being respectful, but he enjoyed the rush either way

The denim came down easily, once it was past Viktor’s hips, sliding all the way down his legs and leaving Yuri with a predatory smirk

“Oh Vitya, I see I’m not the only one who had plans for tonight,” he teased playfully 

Viktor was covered in lace 

He wasn’t wearing the plain and boring men’s underwear that Yuri had expected, but instead, floral, ice blue lace panties

“Who said those were for you?” Viktor teased, sitting up slightly to catch Yuri’s face again, another kiss… another kiss… always another kiss, there were never enough of them

“Oh? Do you often wear lingerie to Disneyland?” Yuri teased back just as playfully, his hands gliding down to Viktor’s hips, to his thighs, stroking back and forth between them, plainly and purposely ignoring the space in between

“No, I just often wear lingerie,” Viktor replied with a smirk

…Ah…. Yuri had no good comeback for that one 

He decided to shut Viktor up, lip to lip, it was the best way- and only way, for that matter- he knew how to win an unwinnable argument with him- or whatever this was-

It was something he’d gotten alot of practice with over the last few weeks, and for his credit, Viktor didn’t seem to mind

He shivered at the sensation of Viktor finally pushing his boxers down, a slight flash of embarrassment snapping through him at the fact that he hadn’t worn anything dressy, anything special, for Viktor, like Viktor had for him

Honestly, until a few moments before, until he had come to the realization of who Viktor was, he had still been a little too nervous to really be sure if he wanted to test these waters tonight, or if he wanted to wait until they were back home, he had brought the lube just in case but hadn’t been sure

That nervousness was gone now

Viktor had seen him at his lowest

He had seen Yuri at his most frustrated and confused, had been the one to change Yuri’s life, he had had the same blind faith in Yuri and Yuri’s deserving of love that Yuri had had in Viktor’s

Viktor had seen him as a beauty and an idol and a false god, and he had seen him as a snake and a pity and a mortal

Viktor had seen him on his best days and his worst

And he loved him

Viktor still loved him

He had cared for Yuri without even knowing who Yuri was and any hesitation or anxiety that may have come with a delicate moment like this one was gone the moment that realization poured over him

He helped Viktor get him out of his underwear, and he made a point of not concentrating on himself, not concentrating on the cool air against his exposed skin or the fact that he had nothing left to hide anymore- not anything physical, anyway

He concentrated on Viktor instead

He concentrated on taking both of Viktor’s hands in one of his and pinning them above his head as he looped his fingers around the ring of Viktor’s collar and tugged again

He concentrated on the way Viktor gasped and instinctively spread his legs

He concentrated on leaving a trail of kisses down Viktor’s body, taking his time until Viktor was whimpering and trembling above him, until he stopped finding warm, pale skin under his lips and started finding strips of blue lace instead

A slight smirk came over his face as Yuri caught the hem of the lace against his teeth and started to pull

Viktor gave a stuttering exhale, glancing down and raising his eyebrows

“You’ll ruin those,” he pointed out breathlessly

“That seems fitting, given I’m about to ruin _you_ along with them,”

“Oh my god… _Yuri_ ….” Viktor gasped, his head crashing against the pillow again as Yuri continued with his mission to get rid of the blue lace keeping his lover from being entirely exposed

He wasn’t sure if Viktor was amused or aroused- or both, it was probably both- but either way, Yuri was more than happy to spur on more of the response

The process of getting Viktor’s lacy coverings off with only his teeth could be described only as agonizing, with Viktor seeming to grow more and more impatient as the moments passed by

But Yuri took alot of pride in his stamina and he wasn’t about to let Viktor off the hook easily- especially their first time around

“God! Thank god! Yuri, fuck!” Viktor gasped dramatically, practically writhing against Yuri’s hold, against his hands and his gentle touches

The panties had finally fallen past Viktor’s hips, giving Yuri an excuse to let Viktor go from the grip he had been holding on him

No more had he let go and reached down to remove the lace from where it was currently pooled past Viktor’s thighs did the designer suddenly sit up, pushing Yuri back gently and discarding the little scrap of lace himself before hovering over Yuri and giving him a slow, long kiss, one hand cupping Yuri’s face as the other moved carefully over Yuri’s hip, his thumb rubbing small, soothing circles into his skin

Yuri shuddered, his eyes fluttering as he looped his arms around Viktor’s neck and wrapped his legs around his waist, straddling him and holding him close, keeping him in place, never letting him go

His nails scratched gently down Viktor’s back, just a touch harder than before, and Yuri leaned up to purr against his ear

“You know, you would look beautiful with a tattoo,”

“You think so?” Viktor breathed

Yuri hummed softly, giving a nod and leaning up to drag his teeth against the shell of Viktor’s ear, his hands smoothing down his back, from his shoulders all the way down to his hips, soft now, without the bite of nails to follow

“I could choose something for you,” he offered, his hands traveling a bit lower

“I could play designer for once,”

Viktor inhaled sharply at the sensation of Yuri’s hands against his ass, his skin burning with warmth against Yuri’s cooler touch, his hips rocking forward on instinct against the squeezing pressure his lover applied

He exhaled in a huff of breath, his arms trembling as he caught Yuri in a kiss again, slower this time, gentler, as he felt Yuri nudge his thighs apart with his heel, seemingly effortless, seemingly with ease, with skill and perfection

Viktor was going to fall apart, and Yuri knew it

“You want to belong to me,” Yuri noted, keeping one hand in place, letting it smooth over the freshly unveiled skin, as the other glided across Viktor’s hip, down his side, then up again

“Let me give you something you’ll never be without,”

“Fuck Yuri…” Viktor gasped, curling his fists into the sheets to keep himself in place, but it didn’t do him much good, before long Yuri had flipped them again, with Viktor’s back against the mattress and his head against the pillows, a devilish smirk on Yuri’s face

“I’ll never be without you,” he noted belatedly, cupping Yuri’s face, letting his thumb trail against Yuri’s bottom lip as the musician dragged both hands over Viktor’s thighs, pushing them further apart as he leaned into the touch

“I’ll never be without you, Yuri… will I?”

“Never,” Yuri promised, dragging kisses across Viktor’s palm, down his wrist, letting his teeth scrape against the designer’s skin as he reached across the bed and grabbed the bottle of lube he had taken from the overnight bag earlier

“I will never leave you Viktor, I will never let you be alone again,”

Yuri’s touch was good- but his words….

His words were what shook Viktor down to his core, and Yuri seemed to know that, he saw the shaking, desperate adoration and want and _trust_ in Viktor’s eyes and gave him another kiss, longer and slower, deeper and more sensual, as he popped the cap open on the bottle

Viktor’s hands came up to tangle in Yuri’s hair, his entire focus seeming to be on Yuri’s kiss, his lips, his face… seemingly forgetting about the rest of Yuri’s body, if the way he startled at the touch of Yuri’s newly coated fingers pressing between his legs was any indication

Yuri should apologize for startling him

He should ask if it’s too cold

He shouldn’t smirk, and giggle, and pull at Viktor’s bottom lip with his teeth, but that’s exactly what he does

Viktor melts, relaxed, just as quickly as he had tensed, and Yuri pressed two fingers flat against his rim- just a tease, just a temptation, just a test

“Are you ready?” he asked quietly, pulling his mouth away from Viktor’s- just for now, just for a moment

“Yes,” Viktor replied immediately, entirely lacking in hesitation

“Are you sure?”

“Yes,” Viktor insisted, a little harder this time, letting his nails scratch against Yuri’s scalp briefly before dragging down the back of his neck

Yuri shuddered at that sensation, his own legs trembling at the pleasure that shook through him, before carefully pressing one finger inside of his lover

He had expected more resistance

He had expected tension, and the need to soothe down what pain may came from that touch

But it went easily, and the only tension that followed was the way Viktor arched his back, and the strangled moan he gave of Yuri’s name

Still, Yuri wasn’t about to push things, he wasn’t about to get overzealous and make a mistake

This was one thing he absolutely refused to screw up

Viktor’s nails scratched down his back, his fingers traced the tattoo, his hands explored lower and lower, enough to squeeze Yuri’s hips, and it was at that moment that Yuri decided to start moving his finger, still taking care, but now more confident that Viktor was as alright as he appeared

“You know,” Viktor noted almost breathlessly, one hand moving down to squeeze Yuri’s ass, the other drifting down to rub over his thigh

“I’ve never taken things this slowly before,”

The information came as -…. a shock? A surprise?

A surprise

It was a surprise

“Never?”

Viktor shook his head, letting his fingers drift teasingly over Yuri’s rim, evidently only intending to follow Yuri’s path of intimacy, never leading further than what Yuri himself was beginning

It was sweet, it was nice, it made a burst of warmth spread through him as he crooked his finger and twisted his wrist and pried a shuddering cry out of his lover

_Oh_

There it was

“N-No.. never… I’ve always b-been ah-.. a fast-fuck type…. fuck Yuri… Yuri again, please, again,”

Yuri obeyed, tracing over that same spot a second time and feeling Viktor’s nails dig into his thigh roughly as he tossed his head back and dug his heels into the mattress, a small tumble of Russian falling out of his mouth

“Again, again, please Yuri-”

“Why haven’t you gone slowly like this before?” Yuri asked curiously, nipping Viktor’s shoulder, letting his other hand smooth up his chest, his fingers gliding over his lover’s hardened nipples, pulling another stream of unidentifiable words out of Viktor’s throat

“Y-Yuri-!”

“Hm?”

Maybe Yuri was having too much fun teasing him, too much fun stretching him out, pumping his finger in and out, avoiding what he knew Viktor wanted until he got his answer

Maybe he shouldn’t be playing around with such a serious occasion, with his first time having such intimacy with someone, with Viktor’s first time having something so slow- evidently- but…

Their relationship was built off of joy and teasing and humor as much as anything else, it felt fitting to keep that even now

“I just-… no one ever wanted to, it’s not for lack of trying,” Viktor replied easily, his grip slackening as he moved his hand down Yuri’s leg, dragging small touches, seemingly more out of contemplation than anything else

“I don’t know… most of my relationships have been… one night stands and short-shots, I don’t know if I’ve ever been with anyone more than a month, I don’t know if that’s because of me or because of them or some combination of the two but…. I’ve had sex, I’ve fucked, I’ve never had _intimacy_ ,”

Yuri rewarded the information with another careful graze of his finger against Viktor’s prostate, shaking another gasp out of him and leaning down to give him a soft kiss- a reward, of sorts

“Then… this is a first for us both?”

“Yes,”

Another press against that same spot, another whimpering inhale to follow

“What about your.. first..?”

“I was an overeager teenager, I pushed too far too fast, it’s not a good story,” Viktor answered simply, panting lowly as Yuri hesitantly pressed a second finger inside of him, relieved to find that he hadn’t underestimated his preparation

“Yuri… Yuri please, please-” he gasped out, startling as the fingers that were playing against his nipples suddenly pinched- nothing too rough, just to tease, just to taunt, just to shake that incredible shout of pleasure out of Viktor again as Yuri carefully worked to stretch him

“Even when you top-?”

“I have a bad habit of trying too hard to please my partner and no one ever seems patient enough to want to deal with my taking things slow,”

The words tumbled out in a rushed confession, and Yuri pressed the heel of his thumb against Viktor’s nipple, the fingers inside him beginning to spread, stretch, scissoring him carefully as Viktor let out another string of Russian curses

“So… no one has ever taken care of you,” Yuri determined

“N-No….”

_'I will’_ , Yuri thought to himself, with every push and pull, drag and tug of his fingers

He would take care of Viktor as though he were the most precious treasure in the universe, give him all the love and care he could ever need

“Please don’t get me wrong,” Viktor breathed, his hands now moving across Yuri’s sides, tracing patterns over his ribs as the designer stared up at him with sure confidence in his icy blue eyes

“I like it rough, I like it hard and fast, I don’t want you to think that that isn’t what I enjoy because I do, I jus-”

“You deserve more than just that,” Yuri interrupted, twisting his wrist again as a loud _“FUCK!”_ flew past Viktor’s lips

“You deserve to have both, Vitya, if you want them, and you deserve to have something more intense than just what 'hard and fast’ can give you, you deserve to be cared for, and adored, _you deserve to be **loved**_ ,”

The words were hauntingly familiar, and the way Viktor teared up and choked up was the proof Yuri needed to see that he remembered just as vividly as Yuri did

“I love you, Yuri,” he said quietly, his hands still for the moment, staring into Yuri’s eyes, his focus only there, only in the gaze that he held

“I…. I know,”

And in some ways that was still hard to admit

Even with all the love that Viktor had shown him, all of the devotion, all of the encouragement and insistence, it was still hard to really _accept_ being loved, that anyone _could_ love him

But in that moment, as bright and terrifying as it may have been, he accepted it

“I know, and I love you too, Vitya, Viktor, _Vitenka_ ,”

Viktor startled, his face pink as his hands squeezed over Yuri’s ribs as the musician punctuated his sentence with a kiss, carefully starting to work a third finger inside of him

“W-Where did you…?”

“I tried for a year to find someone named 'Vitya’, you don’t think I learned a little bit about Russian naming customs?” Yuri teased playfully, his expression soft, but still with that edge of taunting seduction to him

“Is it… is it ok…?”

“ _Yes_ ,” Viktor breathed, like a prayer, like a desperate cry to the gods as he moved one hand away from Yuri’s ribs, up to his face, and leaned closer to press their heads together

“More than ok, Yurochka,” he promised

Yuri closed his eyes breifly as he began building a new rhythm within his lover, a gentle but sure force, pumping into him, exploring him, stretching him still, shaking gasps and moans out of Viktor with every stroke of his fingers as he let himself melt into the kiss

Viktor dared, then, for the first time, letting his fingers trace over the base of Yuri’s cock, dragging a gasp out of the musician

He seemed _far_ too pleased with that reaction, with the way he smirked against Yuri’s lips, with the way his eyes sparkled with devious joy

“ _Ne tak uverenno seychas, a ty? Ty takoy zhe chelovek, kak i vse my?_ " 

Viktor was teasing him, and with a curl of his fingers- yanking another whimpering cry out of his very vocal lover- Yuri decided to tease back

” _Net,_ “

Viktor startled, pulling back and staring at Yuri as though the musician had just struck him with a bolt of lightning

Yuri didn’t know Russian

He didn’t have a _clue_ what Viktor had said

But he knew enough to say "yes” and “no” just from being around Viktor for the last couple of months, so really, he just had to choose one

It was a 50/50 shot that it would make sense, more or less

But the startled expression melted back into something closer to smug confidence a minute later as Viktor started to carefully trace his fingers over Yuri’s cock again, up and down, tracing little patterns against his flesh and dragging a moan out of Yuri’s voice as the musician tried to focus on stretching Viktor out further, on hitting the sweet spot within him again and again, wanting to shake Viktor back down into the mumbling mess of pleasure that he had been before

“So what are you then?” Viktor breathed, nipping Yuri’s ear

“An angel? A god?”

“Ha…. try a little further down south than gods and angels,” Yuri breathed softly, the very thought of being something holy nearly amusing enough to make Yuri laugh

….

_Nearly_

“Then you’re a demon? An incubus? You’ve come for my soul?”

“Not a demon, an incubus _is_ a demon so… not that, coming for your soul on the other hand….”

Viktor wrapped his hand around Yuri’s cock fully, and Yuri’s free hand- which had been resting on Viktor’s shoulder until then- curled, his nails sharply jamming into Viktor’s skin, pulling another moan out of the designer as Yuri’s fingers stuttered, his mind hazy and full of foggy pleasure

He wouldn’t prep for much longer, Yuri felt confident that Viktor was there, stretched as needed, though Yuri wasn’t sure if he’d have the wits to keep going for long regardless, with the way his mind was melting….

“Ha.. ah…. what are you then? Hm?” Viktor teased, and Yuri couldn’t tell how serious he was, but the smirk on his face made Yuri relatively confident that it was more on the playing side

“I am… _Eros_ ,” he answered, his own lips curled up into a grin as he carefully tugged his fingers away from his lover, finally completely satisfied by his work

Viktor looked stunned

“My god, did you really just say that?" 

It was followed by a laugh

An incredulous, joyous laugh, full of humor, full of happiness, full of _love_

Yuri had once heard that if you could laugh during sex, then you were having it with the right person

He was glad to know he had exactly that

"I absolutely did,” Yuri replied easily, grabbing the bottle from beside them again and leaning down to kiss Viktor’s forehead as his hand fell away from his partner’s cock, resting on Yuri’s thigh again

“Ahh… no…. no, you’re not Eros,” Viktor decided, still grinning from ear to ear as Yuri popped the bottle open again and poured the lube into his palm- alot, maybe too much, no… he’d heard there was no such thing as too much…

“You’re my butterfly,”

The teasing and laughter from before was gone, settling somewhere around them as Viktor reached up and stroked his palm against Yuri’s cheek

“You’re my butterfly,” he repeated, a little more firm now

Yes, Yuri decided, shutting the bottle and slicking himself up

He _definitely_ had the right person

“And you’re my lover,” he replied quietly, kissing the heel of Viktor’s palm before reluctantly pulling away, shifting so that he was in a better position, his gaze flicking down briefly to Viktor’s cock and feeling a bit of a rush at how hard and red and dripping with excitement he was

Clearly, Viktor noticed his line of sight

“I hope you feel guilty about that zolotse, it’s very painful, you tease,”

“Well it won’t be for much longer,” Yuri promised with a smirk, quite effectively managing to bring a blush to Viktor’s face

_Good_

“Are you…. Viktor, are you sure about this?” he asked as he carefully shifted forward, one hand on Viktor’s hip, the other guiding him

“Yes, Yuri, I’m sure,”

“You don’t have to-”

“I _want_ to,”

“If I’m too-”

“Yuri,” Viktor interrupted firmly

“Yuri I cannot think of another way to give consent other than to sign a fucking contract, my love, so please, before I die, give yourself to me, give me your love, become my lover, please,” his voice was so soft, encouraging, a little amused, but still firm, still insistent 

Yuri noted belatedly, as he kissed Viktor’s lips and finally allowed himself to push in, that Viktor didn’t ask Yuri to fuck him

He asked Yuri to give him his love

It was a difference, a stark contrast, to the way they had casually discussed sex in the past, to the way they had batted around experiences and preferences and what they might like when they would reach that point, the casualness was gone and it was so much more… personal now

It meant something to Yuri

It meant alot to Yuri

Viktor shuddered, he wrapped his arms around Yuri and hugged him close, and Yuri exhaled, he inhaled and he exhaled, he did what he could to breathe and concentrate and not allow the sheer, incredible, indescribable pleasure of this moment to overcome him, to drown out his good senses

He was still going to take care of Viktor

He was still going to make this right, make this _good_ , for Viktor, and to do that, he needed to keep atleast a few of his senses

“Move,” Viktor gasped out, sooner than Yuri expected, taking him by surprise as Viktor pressed upwards and caught him in a short, biting kiss, meant to grab Yuri’s attention more than anything else

“Zolotse, please? Please move, my darling, my butterfly, my _lover_ -”

“You’re so sappy,” Yuri breathed, but it was fond, and amused, and incredibly happy, as he carefully dragged his hips back, then pushed forward again, pulling a moan from both of them

And god…. _gods_ …. Yuri’s head was spinning

“I’m sappy for you,” Viktor gasped as he wrapped his arm loosely around Yuri’s shoulders, his fingers playing in his lover’s hair as Yuri leaned down to pepper kisses across his face, his hips moving slowly, but steadily now, starting to build a careful pace within him

“And I love you for it,” Yuri promised, one hand moving up to cup Viktor’s face, his thumb stroking over his upper cheekbone, just beneath his eye, the beautiful, icy blue….

“What a pair we make,” Viktor chuckled lowly, his other hand moving down Yuri’s back

Again with the tattoos….

Clearly, Viktor had a kink

“Oh honey, you have no idea,” Yuri grinned, keeping his pace slow, but now shifting a little, angling himself a bit better, and at the first thrust in at the new angle-

_“Blyad`!!”_

Oh, _there it was_

Just like the first time

“Y-Yuri… Yuri please please please-!!”

“Shh,” Yuri encouraged, kissing him once more, silencing him once more, as he steadily moved forward, his hips rocking with near perfect precision as he met that magnificent source of pleasure head on time after time

Viktor was already whimpering and moaning, shaking apart in his arms, but it wasn’t enough, Yuri wanted to break him, to shatter him apart, he wanted his name to be screamed to the heavens before this night was over with, and he knew that if he did this right, that wouldn’t be a fantasy for too much longer….

“Yuri.. Yuri… Yuri… _Yuri_!” Viktor chanted with desperation, rocking his own hips faster, harder, trying to encourage more out of Yuri, and though the musician liked to think he was meeting Viktor half-way, he was also consciously keeping things slower than he probably could have

He didn’t want to rush this

He didn’t want to seek out that immediate gratification

He wanted Viktor to fall apart from being _loved_ just as much as he did from being _pleasured_

“You sound like you’ve practiced that,” Yuri teased

“Ha…. I have,” Viktor smirked back, his eyes practically sparkling as he stared up at Yuri’s face, the fingers tracing Yuri’s tattoo beginning to travel a perfect pattern down his spine

“I have adored you for years, do you really think I never fantasized about you?”

Apparently Yuri’s expression gave him away

No, he never really had thought about that…

He’d never really thought _anyone_ would find him attractive enough to _fantasize_ about

“Oh Yuri, god bless that you weren’t lured in by another crazy fan before me,” Viktor laughed playfully

The thought of it, the realization of it, was hitting Yuri a little harder than it probably should have, his arousal spiking a little higher than it probably should have too, and he knew the only way to regain control over his spiraling hormones would be to level the playing field

“I’m glad to hear that though, Vitya,” he noted as he pushed forward a little harder, a little faster, not by much, but just enough to show Viktor exactly how pleased he was with that sentiment

“I can’t tell you how many times I thought about debauching that pretty peacock at the party,”

Mission successful, Viktor groaned and dug his nails into Yuri’s back, resting just above his tailbone, and mumbled Yuri’s name in a wreckage of desperate moans and curses

“I was starting to feel guilty,” he noted casually, though his labored breathing was giving away just how much their activities were starting to impact him as well

“I thought of you so much, so often, Vitya, and you never knew… I was starting to feel guilty about that, about dreaming of you, and imagining you, and _wanting_ you…”

He took that opportunity to finally wrap his hand around Viktor’s cock, earning a scream of pleasure from the designer as Viktor settled both hands on Yuri’s hips, tossed his head back, and shuddered and unraveled beneath him

It was a beautiful sight

It was a perfect sight

Yuri could happily take his dying breath and feel euphoric at that sight

“Y-Yuri… Yuri please… I-I can’t-… I’m close-… please please please…”

“It’s ok Vitya,” Yuri encouraged, kissing the corner of Viktor’s mouth, his hand stroking up and down, careful and even paced

“It’s ok, it’s alright Vitya, just let go, you can let go, you can come for me, _my lover_ ,”

That was all it took, Viktor cried out and shook, he trembled from the pleasure and whimpered a strangled string of words that included Yuri’s name and a few curses and a few desperate prayers all smushed together

Yuri could relate, he was on the edge himself

“Good,” he breathed, leaning down and peppering kisses against Viktor’s face before gently letting go of the flesh in his hand, dragging his fingers gently over Viktor’s twitching abdomen, collecting a few drops of come on his fingertips

“Such a good boy Vitya, my good boy, my love, my lover…”

“Y-Yuri… _Yuri_ …” Viktor cried out, his eyes blinking open just in time to watch as Yuri pressed his come-covered fingers into his mouth, sucking them clean as he continued to rock forward

“F-Fuck…. what are-..? Are you trying to _kill me_?” Viktor whimpered

“Not yet,” Yuri replied far too casually

But he was on the edge himself

It was all he could do to keep his cool, to keep himself together, as he continued to pump forward, leaning down to press a kiss against Viktor’s neck, soft and gentle, before replacing that gentleness with a bite, his teeth sinking into Viktor’s neck

And ultimately, that’s what did it

The way Viktor cried his name and the sweet taste in his mouth was all he needed to finally find his own release

It was unlike anything Yuri had ever felt before

It was so much more than just an orgasm, it was so much more than just a release of pressure and an excess of pleasure, it was a bond, it was a commitment, it was a confession of love as he poured himself into Viktor, as the two of them truly became one together

It was everything he had ever wanted and everything he had never thought he would have at once

It was Heaven

It was love

It was a _lover_

“Yuri…?” Viktor mumbled, finally catching Yuri’s attention as he pulled his teeth away and pursed his lips, face slightly flushed as he stared down at Viktor’s smiling, happy face

“You ok? You went still for a moment,”

“I-I’m fine,” Yuri promised softly, giving him another gentle kiss

“More than fine,”

“Ah, _sovershenstvo_ ,”

Yuri decided he would have to learn Russian

It would be the only way to understand every sweet word or playful tease or ecstatic scream that his lover gave

“Now… what did you say earlier about a contract?” Yuri teased, reluctantly pulling out and huffing as he rolled over onto his back

Viktor stared at him, at first in surprise, before his expression melted into one of humor and adoration

“ _Ty prosto polon reshimosti ubit’ menya, ne tak li zolotse?_ ”

Taking another shot in the dark, Yuri shrugged and answered him

“ _Da_ ,”

Viktor paled again, before his expression broke into one of sheer euphoria, and he gave a bright, happy, ecstatic laugh

“I love you Yuri,” he giggled, leaning over to give his partner a deep, enthusiastic kiss

Yuri sighed into the affection, closed his eyes, and felt butterflies fluttering around in his chest

“And I love you, _Vitya_ ,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Brain mouse- https://catifex.tumblr.com/post/175103995572/catifex-bishounen-curious-chloroscythe
> 
> Russian translations (according to Google translate): "Awesome!"  
> "Not so confident now, are you? Are you really human like the rest of us?"  
> "No"  
> "Perfection"  
> "You're just determined to kill me, aren't you my gold?"  
> "Yes"
> 
> Chapter Title Song: Enchanted- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs_1nw6OXgE
> 
> Scene break titles:
> 
> o.Enchanted- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rs_1nw6OXgE  
> o.Daylight- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9raS7-NisU


	7. Daylight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited by Venom <3

_I loved you in spite of deep fears that the world would divide us_

Viktor was the first to wake

He opened his eyes and felt his heart practically leap out of his chest as he stared at the beautiful man beside him

_Yuri...._

So it wasn't just a dream

In all honesty, Viktor still feared that sometimes

No matter how many times he woke up with Yuri near him, he never quite stopped being afraid that one day, he would open his eyes and realize that this had been the most vivid dream he'd ever had

Swallowing tightly, he resisted the urge to reach out and touch Yuri's face

He looked so at peace when he slept, it would be a crime to disturb him like this when Viktor didn't have to

The first time he woke up with Yuri in his arms, he had decided to be romantic about it and wake him with kisses and song lyrics

That time he decided to interrupt the moment, but this time....

This time he decided to let him sleep

He decided to _watch_ him sleep

Generally speaking, Viktor wasn't really an artist- not in the way of drawing landscapes or painting portraits, he only tended to pick up a pencil when he wanted to design something, but this time....

He wanted to keep this moment forever, just in case he lost it somehow, somewhere

He wanted to remember this moment, Yuri's face, that this wasn't a dream

But a photo didn't seem right

It seemed... cheap

It wouldn't be the same

Viktor loved taking photos but it just wouldn't seem right to photograph this

_Drawing_ , however....

He carefully shifted in bed, reaching over and slowly picking up the overnight bag from the floor

When Yuri had gotten up last night to clean them both up he had moved the overnight bag closer in case one of them decided to put some clothes on in the middle of the night

Neither of them had, but it was a nice thought all the same, and Viktor was glad that the bag was closer now

He marveled in slight surprise over the fact that he wasn't in any pain as he sat up and started sifting through the bag

Odd, he hadn't had sex in quite some time, and after spending all day at Disneyland too.... shouldn't he _atleast_ be experiencing some muscle aches?

It was strange, but he decided to count himself lucky and not pay much mind to it

He had to be careful, he knew from past experience that Yuri could be a light sleeper, so he took to sifting through the bag as quietly as he could

He knew he'd put his sketchbook and some pens in here, but they were probably on the bottom...

He pulled the empty cosmetic bag from last night and spare sets of clothes out and set them on the foot of the bed, passed by their hairbrushes and a set of headphones that Yuri had brought with him, as well as a leather-bound snowflake print journal wich he assumed was also Yuri's

Beneath the journal was his sketchbook, so now all he needed was his pen and pencil bag

He pulled the sketchbook out quietly and set it beside him, then went on the hunt for his pens

He passed by a bottle of lotion and the case for Yuri's glasses, which contained his cleaning cloth and a mini bottle of lens spray- or so he had told Viktor yesterday when he asked about it- and finally his hand hit against a cloth pouch

It felt kind of different from his pencil bag but maybe he was imagining things...

As he pulled it forward, however, he came to the realization that he, indeed, was not imagining things

The bag wasn't his _"Reputation"_ themed canvas pencil bag after all, rather, it was a cute poodle printed cosmetic bag, similar to the snowflake printed one Yuri had kept the lube in

It must have been Yuri's too....

He moved to put it back, but heard a soft rattling sound when he moved it, eyebrows raising curiously

Oh.... Yuri must have candy!!

Surely he wouldn't mind if Viktor had a piece, right?

And who knew how long it might be before Yuri woke up? He could starve, potentially

So, unzipping the bag, he picked up the black plastic bottle that was making the noise and unscrewed the cap, expecting the sweet scent of candy to hit him.... but that _definitely_ wasn't what happened

Instead he was accosted by the strong scent of herbs, it kind of reminded him of garlic and oregano....

That was... that was just bizarre wasn't it?

Holding his hand out, he tipped the bottle over and was surprised when a couple of little black gelcaps tumbled out into his palm

What....?

Head tilting, he shoved them back into the bottle and screwed the cap back on, setting the bottle back in the bag upon realizing there was no label on it, and picking up the other bottle in the bag, finding this one considerably heavier and not nearly as noisy

It was opaque white, he couldn't see so much as a tint of color from the contents, but when he tipped it back and forth it seemed like he heard liquid sloshing inside- and quite a bit of it too...

Weird....

The bottle itself was plastic, and yet there was a cap on it that seemed to function alot more like a traditional metal bottle cap than a twist-off or a flip-cap....

He had never seen anything quite like it before

"Vitya...?" Yuri mumbled quietly, slowly sitting up and blinking, rubbing at his eyes and suddenly seeming to spot what Viktor was holding, practically bolting for it and snatching them out of his hands

"What.. what were you doing with these?"

"Oh, I'm sorry Yurochka, I was searching for my pencil bag and found your pouch instead, I thought you had candy at first.... what is that stuff?" he asked curiously, wrapping his arms around Yuri's waist and letting his head rest against his lover's shoulder

"It.. it's nothing Vitya, it's just medicine,"

"Medicine?" Viktor asked with concern, lifting his head up

"Just herbal supplements and... stuff..."

"Supplements for what? Medicine for what? Yuri-"

"It's um... oil of oregano and colloidal silver, it's just a.. it's just some health stuff from my family's hot springs, I'm superstitious,"

Viktor tilted his head, now more confused than he had been before

"Superstitious" didn't really fit as a term for someone who took herbal and homeopathic remedies, and weren't those both remedies that were _Americanized_? Or atleast from the west? 

Sure, Viktor didn't know much about Japan _or_ about homeopathy, but it seemed off to him...

"That's an awfully big bottle of silver," he noted plainly as he picked it up

"And don't they usually come with droppers? You have to dilute this stuff right?"

"W-What makes you say that?"

"Oh I used to date this guy who swore by it, we always had to stay at his place so he could take it in the mornings, he never wanted to go to the trouble of remembering to bring it over with him so..."

Shrugging, he took note of the slightly panicked look on Yuri's face, but then noticed how quickly it was schooled into something more easy and confident

Ah, so the child star in him comes out

"That's really interesting Vitya, there's a dropper attached to the bottom of the cap though, it's a funny looking bottle right? It's a lock-cap so I can travel with it and never have to worry about it spilling on my stuff,"

Yeah, Viktor didn't believe that for a second

It may have been a lock-cap, but he didn't for one minute believe that Yuri was just trying to keep some silver from spilling out into his bag, if that were the case, why keep it in a cloth bag at all? Why not a plastic one?

"I'm going to go take these ok? I'll be back in a second," he said suddenly, sliding out of bed and shoving his glasses on before Viktor could attempt to stop him

He frowned tensely, reaching out and grabbing Yuri by the wrist as the musician took his cosmetic bag

"Yuri wait, you.... wouldn't lie to me, would you?"

Yuri stared at him with concern, opening his mouth, but Viktor interrupted again

"If you were sick, if... if something was wrong... you wouldn't... you wouldn't lie to me about that, would you?"

Yuri's expression eased, a quiet sigh leaving him as he moved closer and leaned down, pressing their foreheads together and lingering for a short moment, shaking his head carefully against Viktor's

"Never, Vitya," he promised quietly

"I would never lie to you about something like that, you have my word, you're my world Vitya.... I'd never hurt you,"

Viktor watched, chest clenching, as Yuri gave him one more kiss before pulling away and heading to the bathroom, shutting the door behind him

_I would never lie to you about something like that_

But then... what _would_ Yuri lie to him about?

Maybe he was exaggerating, maybe he was over-analyzing, but it made his heart ache, just a little bit, to wonder what secrets Yuri might be keeping from him

Sighing lowly, he shifted towards the nightstand, grabbing his phone from it- wich Yuri had been so nice to put there when he moved the bag last night, rescuing it from the floor where it had gotten tossed with Viktor's pants

He stared at the blank screen for a long, long moment, not sure if he wanted to turn it on or not

No.... no that was wrong, he _knew_ he didn't want to turn it on, what made him unsure was whether or not he should try anyway

Chewing his lip, he came to the irritating conclusion that he'd have to do it sooner or later so he might as well get it over with, and turned the phone off, unlocking it, and wincing in horror as the sound of text messages flooding in started to go off

38 missed calls, 483 unread texts, 21 voicemails, and he REALLY didn't want to check his social media- it may have broken the apps....

Rubbing his face, he decided a quick scroll through would atleast give him the gist of what people thought, and he could read the individual messages later

Four messages from Chris, all positive

About twelve from Leo, wondering why he hadn't been told about this sooner

Six from Otabek, warning him that Yura was on a rampage

145 from Yura....

He sighed quietly and rubbed at his face, this was where it was starting to get negative...

There were links to articles and photos and videos of him and Yuri together, he hadn't even begun to scratch the surface of his texts yet but he already felt so incredibly exhausted....

Most of his messages were from friends and people who he worked closely with, but only a little more than half of them were positive

Even though Yuri had a generally positive- if controversial- image, there were alot of people who had extremely strong feelings about him

...Extremely _negative_ feelings

Viktor wondered briefly, if his own phone was this full, what must Yuri's look like?

Hell, he'd probably have to get a new one, the numbers were probably up in the millions or more

Maybe that was an exaggeration but....

He wondered how many of Yuri's messages were negative, how many of them were criticizing Yuri for his choice in dating Viktor?

How many of them were going to end up hurting Yuri in some way just because of him?

Viktor wasn't much of anything, after all, in terms of fame

Sure he was a murmured name in the fashion industry, but even there he was generally still considered a "rising talent" and hadn't cracked the surface of the bigger names that may have otherwise afforded him more credibility, he couldn't even get his own invite to the MET.... and _outside_ of the fashion industry.....

Yuri was an A list star, he was expected to date other A list stars wasn't he?

What if people were criticizing him for Viktor being below his standards?

He knew that Yuri loved him, he knew that Yuri wanted him, but how much hell would really come from that?

How much pain would he ultimately have to suffer because of that?

He glanced up and noted that Yuri's phone was right next to him, but he wasn't even tempted to look, he knew what an invasion of privacy that would be

He _was_ , however, tempted to Google his own name- or Yuri's- and see what people were saying....

Staring down at his phone, he knew that he was standing on the edge of sanity

If he pulled up Google or went on social media, he would become entrenched in it and would have to deal with the consequences of his decision- all of the negatives, all of the bads, he'd have to see them all

...And wasn't he just happier wondering and choosing to believe that people were being decent for once, than to have the proof sitting right in front of him?

_You don't deserve him, you'll only hold him back..._

"Vitya,"

Glancing up from his phone, Viktor smiled softly as Yuri walked out towards him, a gentle expression on his face as he approached the designer

"I want to try something with you,"

Raising an eyebrow, Viktor nodded slowly and put his phone down as Yuri walked towards him and gently cupped his face

"I know we've talked a little bit about kink, we still need to talk more before we do anything too intense, but.... would you let me do something small? Just... just something easy and no-"

"Yes," Viktor replied immediately, his eyes sparkling with joy

"Yuri, whatever it is, let me try,"

Yuri smiled sweetly and reached onto the floor where Viktor's crop top had been thrown last night

"Give me your hands,"

Viktor obeyed immediately, grinning from ear to ear as Yuri leaned over him and started wrapping the cloth around his wrists

"I'm going to keep it loose so you can get out at any time, I just want to see if you like the feeling,"

"I do,"

"With me,"

" _I do_ ," Viktor laughed, but he wouldn't argue about keeping the shirt loose, he knew that totally binding him when they still hadn't gone into in depth conversations about things like safe words and preferences was unwise

"I'm not going to do anything intense, so if you want to stop, just say so ok? If you need a safeword, just say stop-"

"Yuri," Viktor sighed, eyebrows raised, a teasing grin on his face

"I thought _I_ was the one who had experimented with all of this before,"

"Well... that's true.... but I'm the one dominating and experimenting with you, I've read plenty, heard plenty from Phichit, I know how important safety precautions are and I just want you to be safe,"

"Thank you darling, but I'll be fine ok? We'll be fine, though... do you mind if I say 'red' if I want you to stop? Instead of just 'stop'?"

"Um... I don't mind, but why? Does it make you more comfortable?"

"Actually it's because I always use your album names as my safewords and I never get to use that one because of the traffic light system, red is always just _red_ , it isn't special, now it can be," he replied with a grin

Yuri deadpanned, staring at Viktor with minor disapproval

"That's creative but I'm afraid to ask how long you've been doing that, I can't imagine a mouthful like '1995' is a good safeword,"

"Ha, no, I mostly have just used 'Reputation' but I used 'Fearless' the few times I did this sorta thing before 'Reputation' came out, it's a goal to use all of them though!" he replied with a wink

"Vitya for your own safety, please don't try to use the longer ones ok?" Yuri asked with a fond shake of his head, although it was clear that he was rather charmed by Viktor's "creativity"

"Well it isn't my preference but if you _insist_..." Viktor replied with an exaggerated sigh

"You're really something else," Yuri accused, stepping back and suddenly pushing Viktor down on the bed, on his back, pulling a thrilled gasp from the designer

"But I love you for it,"

With that, he gently pushed Viktor's arms up so that they were resting above his head, a smirk on Yuri's face as he gave Viktor's hips a gentle tug and spread his thighs about you little slut. 

"Yuri?" Viktor asked quietly

"Hm?"

"Could you-....... are you.. what if people react badly to this? _Really_ badly? Our relationship I mean, will you stil-"

"I love you Viktor," Yuri repeated, more firmly this time, purposely using his full name, wanting to drive his point home as clearly as possible

"I love you, no matter what,"

Viktor swallowed tightly, feeling the lump in his throat as he gave a shaking nod and watched Yuri with baited breath as the musician carefully knelt between his legs and took Viktor's cock into his mouth

Viktor cursed, he tossed his head back and arched his spine, and for a moment- atleast a moment- he felt euphoria

And suddenly, the certainty, the sureness, started to rest over him again

Even if things got difficult, even if things went wrong, Yuri would still love him

Viktor inhaled, and right then and there, he vowed once again, with new resolve this time, that he would always protect Yuri, no matter what came their way

_I want you, bless my soul_

"Well? What do you think?"

What did he think?

Yuri thought he was possibly the luckiest man on the entire planet 

He beamed with excitement as he stared at himself in the mirror, giving a small twirl to make sure that the dress gave exactly the kind of movement he wanted before turning to look directly at Viktor 

"I think it's the most beautiful thing I've ever seen," he replied with a soft, breathy voice, as if speaking in reverence

"I think... I don't know what to say, Vitya.... thank you, thank you so much..."

"Oh there's no need to thank me darling, this can't even capture a single fraction of your beauty," he replied with a wink, blowing a kiss towards his lover and watching as Yuri twirled again

"You are so corny..." Yuri huffed, though it was clear that he meant it fondly

It had been a week since he and Viktor officially came out as a couple and although there had definitely been some... _criticism_... things were mostly pretty positive

It was a relief to both of them

The biggest thing to get used to was for Viktor, having to suddenly deal with the price of fame going from the occasional small wave to an absolute hurricane literally overnight

Yuri's life hadn't changed all that much, mostly what was new for him was just being with Viktor all the time

They were practically attached at the hip, seeing eachother every day and spending the night with eachother every night

Sure it wasn't constant, they both had pretty demanding jobs and sometimes they couldn't get to seeing eachother except for an hour here and there, between Yuri's interviews and Viktor's meetings, when Yuri wasn't working on choreography and Viktor wasn't trying to fit someone for one of his designs

It was challenging to stitch their time together, but it was always well worth it in the end

"I actually wanted to ask if... if you would mind if I wore this to the AMAs, I-I mean obviously if not I-"

"MIND?" Viktor gasped, grinning with excitement as he rushed closer and gave Yuri a happy, deep kiss, excitement flourishing clearly within him as he dragged his thumbs against Yuri's cheeks, clearly bursting with pride and joy

"Why would I mind!? Oh Yuri that's so silly! I would never mind! I-... oh god yes! I'm so-... yes, please, please do!"

Yuri laughed enthusiastically at Viktor's reaction, giving him one more kiss before turning to look at himself in the mirror again

The dress was unbelievable...

A classic ball gown silhouette but tailored perfectly to a male body, strapless and with atleast four different layers of chiffon around the skirt, and not to mention the gorgeous train that started at the waist…

It was green and pink, flowing from an army green at the bottom slowly into the pastel pink at the top, with snake print transitioning into a butterfly pattern

It was perfect

It was just... beyond utterly perfect

And Yuri was more than happy to wear it

"I love it Vitya.... thank you," he breathed, leaning closer to give Viktor another kiss, wich he seemed thrilled with

"Do you want to go down to the pool for a quick swim? We have a little time before my video call with my family,"

Ever since moving to the states, Yuri had a weekly call with his family in Hasetsu at 11:00 PM on Thursdays- wich translated to being noon on Fridays in Japan

He hadn't missed it yet, come what may, and he wasn't about to start now

But with it only being a little after ten, there would be nothing wrong with a quick swim

The pool was heated and he had seen Viktor eyeing it earlier that evening when he came over, the designer still getting used to Yuri's home, as this was only his third time being there

"Sure, that sounds great! Can we go skinny dipping?"

Yuri's eyebrows raised, but he didn't get a chance to answer, as Phichit had popped around the corner and tapped on the open bedroom door

"Heeeeey, sorry to interrupt! I just wanted to let you know that we're going to have to change a couple of dates in May to fit the tour around the MET gala,"

"Ok, thanks Phich," Yuri nodded, giving Phichit a thumb's up as his friend ducked back out of the bedroom, likely to rearrange the tour dates for him, he had probably already been on the phone with someone when he stepped in...

"Tour....?" Viktor asked slowly as Yuri turned his back to him, silently asking for Viktor to unzip him

"Yeah, it'll be a nine month session from mid-January to mid-September,"

"Nine months? That.... that's a very long time," Viktor mumbled quietly

Yuri felt his lips tug down, he could already feel the sadness practically pouring off of Viktor, and it made his heart ache

"Yeah, I actually will be touring for two months longer than this particular amount of dates would typically support," he noted as he felt Viktor tug the zipper down

"What? Why?"

Viktor sounded irritated, frustrated, and... hurt, mostly

But luckily Yuri could fix that

"To accommodate the amount of breaks I need," he answered simply, starting to peel the bodice of the dress off

That seemed to loosen Viktor's frustration atleast

"...Breaks?" he repeated slowly

"Yeah, I take alot more breaks than most musicians do, averaging about two weeks out of the month home, not always consecutive weeks ofcourse, sometimes it's more of a 'four days traveling, two at home, one week traveling, five days home' type of thing, in fact it's usually more like that, but it's a rough estimate,"

"O-Oh.... what for?"

"The travel is really rough on me, my anxiety just doesn't handle it, when I was younger and didn't have the luxury of scheduling things to my liking it nearly killed me to tour, in fact during the _'Red'_ tour I even got sick and had to cancel a month of it and reschedule it for what _would_ have been my vacation time,"

"I remember that," Viktor gasped, moving to sit on the edge of Yuri's bed as the musician worked his way out of his dress

"I'd wondered what happened, the media didn't say, they just said that you were under doctor's orders to stay home a month,"

"Yeah, it was my anxiety, it caused me to get so sick I had to stop,"

He hoped Viktor wouldn't pry further than that....

"What was it? Pneumonia? Mono? Laryngitis?"

"I'd... rather not talk about it at the moment, I'm sorry, it brings back some bad memories so-"

"O-Oh ofcourse!! I'm sorry-"

"Don't be, you had a right to ask," Yuri smiled sweetly, stepping carefully out of the beautiful gown and laying it on the bed to zip it back up

"Is that... why you take the silver and oregano? Those are both to help with the immune system aren't they?"

....

Actually no, that hadn't quite been his intention, but that was the best way a lie had ever come full circle in his entire life and there was no way Yuri was missing this golden opportunity

"You're very smart Viktor," he replied instead, which Viktor seemed to take as confirmation, luckily

"So you stay home more often then," he noted a second later

"Yep, it's really lucky that I hit that mark of fame with _'1995'_ that I could start doing sort of whatever I wanted with my career and didn't have to fit to the standard rules of things like tours and album recordings as strictly, I also am lucky enough to have a manager who understands my condition and advocates for me, so ever since I've been able to get bigger breaks in my tours and take Vicchan with me as an emotional support dog so that when my anxiety _does_ act up I can have something soft and warm to cuddle and calm down,"

"I-I see..." Viktor mumbled quietly, his eyes on Yuri as the musician crossed the room to put the dress back in the garment bag it had been brought in

"So I... I'll still see you? During your tour?"

Yuri's lips curved up into a smirk, his eyes glittering as he walked over to the nightstand and pulled the drawer open

" _Actually_ , I was going to wait until Christmas to give this to you but... since the cat is already trying to claw out of the bag...."

He picked up a plain red envelope, not having had time to do anything fancier yet, and handed it to Viktor, who stared at it for a moment in confusion before opening

"What-... what is this...?" he mumbled quietly, staring at the two tickets that had fallen out into his hand

The first was a prototype ticket for the first date of Yuri's _"Lover"_ tour, and the second was a plane ticket to Hasetsu Japan, the date marked January 14th- the first day of Yuri's tour

He always started it in Hasetsu, that common knowledge amongst fans, so that plus the date must have clued Viktor in

"You... want to take me with you? For your first concert?"

"No," Yuri corrected, sliding into Viktor's lap and straddling him, his arms around Viktor's neck and a smirk on his lips

"I want to take you with me for _all_ of my concerts, I'd like to have something _else_ soft and warm to cuddle with, when Vicchan gets sick of me,"

Realization dawned on Viktor's face, and Yuri felt the warmth in his chest bloom even more at just how incredibly emotional his boyfriend looked

"Y-Yuri...."

"I've already thought about your career, don't worry, I'm working with one of the equipment buses to arrange some extra space to bring along a few design essentials, whatever fabric and supplies you need, an extra dress mannequin or two, your own rack- and I was hoping you'd also be ok with designing a few of my concert outfits too so having you with me could really help with that and-"

" _Yuri-_ "

"-and I know that this sounds.... this is really soon, for people who have only known eachother for about two months-"

"Yuri-"

"-but I've never felt this way about anyone before and it'd be alot easier to remove you from the tour last minute if you decide you don't want to than it would be to add you-"

"Yuri-!"

"-and all these years what keeps me sane are ALWAYS Vicchan and Phichit and I just know that you'll be eve-"

"YURI!!!"

Finally, Yuri quieted his ramblings, staring at the beaming, emotional expression on Viktor's face and smiling softly as the designer reached up to gently cup his cheek

"Yuri Katsuki, it has been my dream for YEARS to be with you, to follow you everywhere, to be on your tour and at your concerts and in your life, and you are CRAZY if you think I would pass it up for anything in the universe,"

Yuri exhaled, clearly relieved, and pressed himself closer, giving Viktor a happy, excited kiss, and feeling a thrill rush through him as Viktor eagerly returned it

"So... you'll come with me?" he breathed between kisses, earning a soft laugh from Viktor

"Yeah, I'll come with you, like your emotional support dog, right?" Viktor winked teasingly

Before Yuri could tease him back, however, Viktor gasped suddenly, startling Yuri

"What about Makkachin!?"

"Already planned for her to come along, we already travel with Vicchan and Phichit's hamsters, everyone is used to a pet or two, ofcourse she'll have to stay here for some of the international tours because the quarantine on animals would be longer than we'd even be staying there but for the most part everything is fine,"

"Oh thank god," Viktor sighed dramatically, flopping down on his back on the bed

"Vitenka...." Yuri purred lowly, his voice playfully stern and threatening

"Would you have said _no_ if I'd said Makka couldn't come with us?"

The color drained from Viktor's face- Yuri wasn't sure if that was a "yes" or if he just didn't want to choose

"....I PLEAD THE FIFTH!!"

"Oh really?" Yuri huffed teasingly, leaning closer and raising his eyebrows, pressing his fingers into Viktor's ribs and staring at him with the same strictness he had started carrying when he really wanted to turn Viktor on

"I'm sorry Mr. Nikiforov, but that won't work in my courtroom, you have one last chance to answer before you're in contempt and I sentence you to having the truth tickled out of you,"

Viktor looked as though he was either about to laugh or scream in terror, but he kept his mouth shut, shaking his head quickly back and forth

"You asked for it then,"

Not even a minute later, Viktor was rolling around laughing until he cried, Yuri on top of him tickling him into an early grave, and the dogs barking and running around the floor, trying to get in on the fun

Yuri really hoped Phichit wasn't on the phone with anyone- he felt bad for them if he was

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Title song: Daylight- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9raS7-NisU
> 
> Scene Break Titles:
> 
> o.Dancing With Our Hands Tied- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFWl6aywKfI  
> o.I Think He Knows- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2d1wKn-oJnA


	8. Bad Blood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited by Venom <3

_Quiet my fears with the touch of your hand_

Viktor had never been more pleased

Watching Yuri walk up to Chris’ house in his Halloween costume was the proudest he had ever felt, seeing Yuri in the costume he had designed just for him, seeing how beautiful he was and even more importantly how confident he looked…

Viktor could die in this moment and it would be a happy death

He could suffer death by a thousand cuts and still die with a smile on his face

Yuri was incredible

He had his hair slicked back and his glasses on as usual, with the bottom half of his face covered with highly intricate optical illusion makeup that made it look like he was sporting a sinister, monstrous smile, his outfit itself was pure white, a high-collared, long sleeved crop top and well tailored, high-waisted pants with a flare at the bottom that was just enough to be seen without being so much it stood out

No, the stand-out was the long white train attached to the waist of the pants, the red leather gloves, and the blood that was dripping off of Yuri’s entire body from the neck down

The anatomically correct heart purse and high heels were pretty nice too

Viktor himself looked far less high fashion by comparison, wearing a mostly plain suit with coat tails and a bloody and butchered chest piece, which looked pretty realistic he was proud to say, as well as stitched-shut lips and his hands bound in leather cuffs with little metal butcher knives accenting them

He and Yuri had definitely gone for “elaborate”, even coming up with a great backstory about how Yuri had been a doctor who fell in love with a model- Viktor- who had rejected him, in anger, Yuri had gone on a killing spree before carving Viktor’s heart out to keep with him and sewing his lips shut so that Viktor could never reject him again

_“Damn that’s dark,”_ had been Phichit’s initial response, which earned a flurry of “It’s Halloween!"s from Yuri and only a single _"Yeah, we’re into that though,”_ from Viktor

Viktor was actually a little sad that the paparazzi weren’t around for once- given that Chris’ party was a _private_ one- as he kind of would have liked to see their beauty gracing magazine covers by morning

Oh well, he supposed that was what social media was for

“Wow, you two look murderous,” Chris noted the moment he saw them

“Thank you,” Yuri smiled sweetly, which was hard to see thanks to the make up, but Viktor noticed the slight fullness of his cheeks and the way his eyes wrinkled behind his glasses and that was all that mattered to him

“And _that_ is wonderfully kinky, is that just for the costume or are you really all chained up?” Chris asked with a seductive grin, his eyes flicking down to Viktor’s cuffs, having already gotten used to seeing Viktor’s collar a while back- a collar that he was more than happy to wear and looked even better with his costume, might he add

“They’re for the costume but they _are_ functional,” Viktor replied, giving his wrists a small tug to prove that the chain between them wouldn’t separate

Chris whistled, clearly impressed

“That’s commitment, you really ok with being handicapped all night darling? That can get pretty annoying after a while, take it from someone who’s done it,”

“Oh I’m not worried, Yuri always takes such good care of me, I’m more than happy to give him even more control than usual tonight,” Viktor smiled back peacefully

Chris looked _stunned_

….

Good

“Damn, you’ve really got it bad hmm? Not that I’m surprised,”

Yuri laughed adoringly, gently wrapping his arm around Viktor’s waist to keep him close

“I’m glad you’re supportive,”

“Oh definitely, you don’t even want to know what Phichit and I get up to, which reminds me…. where _is_ my little hamster anyway?”

“Driving over in about half an hour, he asked us to go ahead, but he didn’t say why,” Yuri replied simply

“Ah, huh… that’s odd…”

“Not really, he always gets pretty particular with his Halloween costumes, sometimes he just takes a while to get the little details right,”

Chris, who had clearly gone through _alot_ of effort ~~not~~ to dress up like a “sexy kitten”, only nodded in appreciation

“Damn, I wish I had the commitment you two have,”

“It helps to have a designer for a boyfriend,” Yuri shrugged back

“Oh no no, mon cheri, I remember even last year you were both absolutely killing it, the full body makeup, Vitya’s dress… what were you again darling? Some sort of bird?”

“I was a peacock,” Viktor replied proudly

“Hm? No no, peacocks aren’t purple,”

“Um, _lavender_ , and I needed a base color Chris, the blue and green would have been too plain without something to offset it,”

“Vitya it’s Halloween, not Fashion Week,”

“Why can’t it be both?”

“Because if you’re going to look like an animal you need to try to be accurate,”

“Says the _cat_ in the latex body suit?”

“….Well I guess you’ve got me there,”

Viktor rolled his eyes teasingly, glancing down at Yuri to propose that maybe next year they should both come as highly “accurate” animals and see if they looked more high fashion or less, but he didn’t get the chance

“Viktor,”

Turning around, Viktor felt his stomach sink slightly

“Otabek… hello, I didn’t expect you to be here, is Yura with you?”

Don’t get him wrong, Viktor liked Otabek, he was a good friend and a cool guy

“Yeah,”

It was just that….

“Still not talking to me though huh?”

“Yeah,”

Well, _that’s_ what it was

Yuri Plisetsky, who was more or less a member of Viktor’s family, had been completely ignoring him for the past two weeks

After initially trying to defend himself and his decision to date Yuri Katsuki, the other Yuri had declared that he wouldn’t talk to Viktor until he _“dumped the fucking leech”_ , whatever the hell that meant

Obviously Viktor wasn’t about to do that

“That’s actually what I wanted to talk to you about,” Otabek added a second later

“I wondered if you would try to reconcile with Yura, I know that this bullshit is all on him, he’s got no reason to have such a problem with Yuri, and I’ve tried plenty of times to convince him of that, but….”

“But Yura won’t listen, why am I not surprised?” Viktor huffed back, edging himself just a little bit closer to Yuri

“This is getting ridiculous Viktor, I’m starting to get worried,” Otabek huffed 

Viktor sighed quietly, muttering something under his breath in Russian before turning to stare sympathetically at Yuri

“I’m so sorry my sweet butterfly, but this is just something I have to do, he’s-”

“He’s your family Vitya,” Yuri said quietly, reaching up to put a hand on his shoulder

“I encourage you to try to fix things with him, and believe me, I’d be more than happy to help if there’s any way that I can,”

“Not that I know of, but thank you,” Viktor smiled softly, leaning down and kissing Yuri carefully, having to take extra caution to avoid screwing up his makeup

“Ofcourse… but I _do_ want to come with you ok? You’re cuffed, you need me,”

Viktor smiled peacefully, ready to accept, but pausing

_I will do whatever it takes to protect Yuri Katsuki_

…

Yura could be… _difficult_

He could be loud and insulting even on the best days, Viktor didn’t know what it was that pissed him off about Yuri so much, but the idea of the two of them being only a few feet away from eachother wasn’t exactly one he relished in, and at the end of the day, protecting Yuri from-… ah… the _other_ Yuri… was his top priority

“I appreciate the offer zolotse, but this is something I need to do alone,”

Yuri seemed uncomfortable with that idea, but he ultimately nodded and reached into his purse

“Alright… then atleast let me uncuff you, it isn’t safe to go walking around like that alone,”

“I won’t be alone, I’ll have Otabek! And you’ll protect me, right buddy?” he asked cheerfully, giving Otabek a playful nudge

Otabek only stared at him in what Viktor could vaguely describe as concern (or discomfort, or maybe irritation? Honestly it was kind of hard to tell with him) and Viktor watched in displeasure as Yuri took the key for the cuffs out of his purse

“N-No really, I’ll be ok,” he insisted again, biting into his lip a little and wincing at the incredibly disapproving look on Yuri’s face

“Vitya, let me have your hands,”

“H-Honestly Yuri, I’d prefer to keep them on, please?”

“It didn’t work for Valentina sweetheart and it’s not going to work for you, now give me your hands or let me go with you,”

Viktor frowned tensely, biting the inside of his cheek

He knew better than to say no, that was the thing about this sort of relationship, he had given himself to Yuri and expected Yuri to take care of him, but he also had to make peace with the fact that Yuri knew what was best for him and he needed to respect his wishes

They may not be as deeply entrenched in kink as alot of kinksters were, but they still had a contract together and Viktor needed to uphold the commitment he made to that, and when it was a matter of caretaking, Yuri was relentlessly cautious and strict, never wanting to risk Viktor’s safety or comfort no matter what consequences that brought with it

On any normal occasion it wouldn’t be good to try to tell Yuri no about something this serious, but to make matters even deeper, when Viktor asked to wear the cuffs, he was agreeing that the rules of play would be in place, meaning that defying Yuri like this was even more frowned upon

“Vitya…” the musician warned lowly

Viktor inhaled and forced a smile, hurrying to turn on his heel to face Otabek

“Otabek!! Would you hang on just oooooneeeee second pretty please?”

“Sure, why not? Yura’s anger certainly isn’t going anywhere,” the other man agreed easily, giving Viktor a short nod before the designer hurriedly spun back towards Yuri

“Ok, I need a timeout, yellow,” he said quickly, noting the small change in emotions that flitted across Yuri’s face before his lover cleared his throat and nodded

“Ok, what is it?”

“I know that this is selfish but I really… I really want to keep the cuffs on, I understand why you don’t want me to, I really do, but… this conversation with Yura is going to be really taxing and I need to.. I need to feel that you’re with me even when you’re not… and I need more than just the collar this time…. please Yuri, I-… I need this,”

“I understand Vitya,” Yuri promised quietly, reaching out to gently place a hand over Viktor’s wrist

“And I don’t want to take a comfort item away from you, believe me, but this is dangerous, this is _too_ dangerous, it would be bad enough letting you walk around cuffed and alone anywhere, but we’re in a really crowded place full of people we don’t know, and you have a target on your back with my name on it now, this is already a potential shark tank and the last thing you need is to become a sitting duck too, I refuse to take you home in a matchbox just because you don’t see the same concerns that I see,”

Viktor frowned sadly, his shoulders sagging as he tried his very, absolute hardest to keep himself relatively graceful and not get upset, but it wasn’t easy

“I would be more than happy to let you keep them if I could go with you though, I don’t see why you’re so insistent that I not go with you, I can give you both some privacy you know, I’m not going to intrude on the conversation,”

“O-Oh Yuri, no, it isn’t about that,” Viktor said quickly, shaking his head

“I just… Yura kinda… hates you…”

“So I’ve been made aware,”

“Well that’s just the thing, I don’t want him to-… I don’t want him to hurt you- you know, emotionally? I vowed that I would protect you, Yuri, and I feel like I’m not doing that if I let you- _make you_ \- be around someone who only has your worst interests at heart,”

Yuri’s expression softened and he reached up, gently stroking his thumb against Viktor’s cheek and leaning up to kiss his forehead lovingly

“I appreciate it sweetheart, I really, honestly do, but I can take care of myself, and I’m not going to get hurt, I learned a really long time ago how to not let things like this bother me, but… if that’s what you’re concerned with, then how about a compromise? You can keep the cuffs, however, I’ll go with you, and I’ll make sure to stay just far enough away that I won’t impede on the conversation, he won’t even know I’m there, ok?”

Viktor was hesitant, but… he supposed….

If Yuri wasn’t listening in and Yura couldn’t see him, then Viktor supposed that would be alright….

“Ok,” he finally relented, a small smile on his face as he gently looped his fingers through Yuri’s once again

“Yes?”

“Yes, thank you Yuri,”

“Good, now what’s your color?”

“Green!” Viktor beamed enthusiastically, pulling a loving smile from Yuri’s face

“Perfect, then let’s go,”

Viktor nodded obediently and squeezed Yuri’s hand gently, finding Otabek with relative ease right after and offering the other musician a short explanation of things so that he would know not to draw attention to Yuri

“Alright, I hope for your sakes that this works,” Otabek noted as he started leading the pair through the crowd of people, assumingly to wherever Yura currently was

“For the record, I’m sorry you’re being put through all of this Yuri,”

“Oh it’s alright, I’m pretty used to it at this point,” Yuri promised with a wave, brushing off Otabek’s concern

Viktor wanted to apologize too, but he knew that Yuri wouldn’t accept that, this wasn’t Viktor’s fault and Yuri wanted him to acknowledge that, Viktor may have known it logically… but it didn’t keep him from feeling emotionally that it was anyway…. 

“You shouldn’t have to be,” Viktor mumbled under his breath, though if Yuri heard him, he had decided not to react, instead he merely kept his attention on what they were doing and eagerly squeezed Viktor’s hand back

It didn’t take long for them to find Yura, who was sitting at a table in the back of the kitchen, across from the mini bar Chris had in the house

Yuri hesitated, but ultimately decided to sit at the bar, watching Viktor like a hawk as the designer headed over to the table to greet the other Yuri

“Yura,” Viktor said coldly, drawing the other Yuri’s attention briefly and earning an irritated scoff from him instead

“Did you break up with that fucking leech yet?”

“No, and I’m not going to,” Viktor said seriously as he sat down across from Yura

“Then I’m not talking to you,”

Viktor rolled his eyes, willing himself to have as much patience as he could possibly summon, wondering if he could somehow magically pull patience from a source deeper than just what he could access on the earth plane

Maybe if he made some sort of sacrifice to the gods….

“Yura, this has gone BEYOND far enough! Why do you hate Yuri so much? If you want me to break up with him so badly then you’re going to have to explain to me why you hate him!”

Yura rolled his eyes in annoyance, crossing his arms over his chest and scoffing

“Well for one thing the bitch stole my name, so now whenever anyone hears my name they think of HIM, and for another, he tried to steal my boyfriend, but luckily Beka has much higher standards than that,”

Otabek- bless his soul- just rolled his eyes and shook his head

“I already told you Yura, just because I didn’t ever date Yuri Katsuki, that doesn’t mean I’m not still his friend,”

“Yeah but atleast you’re not letting him fuck you,” Yura grumbled back

And honestly, that was enough to make Viktor leave all on it’s own

If it was anyone else- _anyone_ else- he already would have been gone before things even reached this point, but…

Yura was his friend, and he was family, he was something important and someone special to Viktor, and he couldn’t help himself from trying to stay and make things right, trying to make things between them ok

Somehow, some way, he was determined to make things ok between himself and Yura again, _without_ giving up Yuri

….

He just had to come up with a way to actually do that….

“Look, I’m leaving then, if you can’t come up with an ACTUAL reason for your dislike of Yuri and tell me what it is, then-”

“Beka,” Yura said suddenly, effectively drawing his boyfriend’s attention

“Would you do me a favor and get me another drink?”

Otabek looked skeptical, but luckily for Yuri, he was weak for the little blonde

“…Please?” he added with something that Viktor wanted to say distantly resembled a pout

Otabek just sighed, clearly resisting the urge to roll his eyes

“Right, I’ll be back,” Otabek finally said, heading away from the table and leaving the two of them alone

Viktor didn’t even have time to ask what that was all about before Yura leaned across the table and- he assumed- attempted to whisper what he had to say

“I hate that fucking bitch because he’s dangerous,” he replied

Viktor blinked, confused, and looked at Yura with minor concern

“…You’re going to have to be more specific,”

Yura rolled his eyes, huffing and leaning in a little bit closer

“He’s a cold blooded murderer, you pointed that out yourself,”

“Oh Yura please! That post was fake! And you hated him way befo-”

“You may have faked it Vitya, but it was still true,”

Viktor blinked, feeling the color drain from his face

“W-What… did you-?”

“Yeah I called you Vitya, and don’t get used to it, I just needed to get your attention, now do I have it or not?!”

Viktor swallowed tightly, giving a small nod of agreement

After all these years of trying to convince Yura to call him that, to finally hear it….

Obviously, whatever this was, Yura was taking it seriously

“Alright Yura, I’m listening,”

Sighing quietly, Yura fidgeted a little more, looking around to make sure no one else was listening, before turning his attention to Viktor again- finally

“Have you ever heard of Rin Matsuoka?”

“Hmm..? No… I can’t say that I have,”

“What about Haruka Nanase? I _know_ you’ve heard of that bastard,”

“Haruka…? You mean that guy Yuri was rumored to be dating a while back? Yeah I remember him, why?”

“Well Rin is in that boy band with Haru, they’re dating now, with someone else too, we met a few years ago and are… sorta kinda friends, Rin and I, I mean,”

“Yura, I’m glad you’ve got another friend out there somewhere, but does this actually have a point?”

“Yeah, that fucking leech and that Haru guy fucking killed somebody!”

Viktor pursed his lips and narrowed his eyes, but he knew that cutting Yura off now wouldn’t do him any good, he needed to wait and get to the bottom of this, try to figure out why his friend was so stuck on this nonsense

“What makes you say that?”

“Rin told me, he called me a few months ago all freaked out, apparently his boyfriend confessed, it was a really weird phone call, he left a message on my voicemail all flipped out but when I called him back he seemed fine, or atleast he was _acting_ like he was fine, I think that bitch Haru did something to him,”

“Can we please relate this back to Yuri?” Viktor asked tiredly

Honestly, he just didn’t have the energy to find this interesting at the moment

Maybe if this had been a few months ago when he was just another fanboy, but now…..

Everything was different now, and he wanted so badly to get back to Yuri, back to enjoying the party with him and being in the presence of someone who legitimately enjoyed spending time with him….

“Haru and Yuri killed a man, I just said that! How are you not freaking out!?”

“Because I don’t believe you,” Viktor replied casually, leaning back in his chair with a bored expression

“Where’s your proof Yura? You can’t just say these things out of hearsay,”

Yura gritted his teeth, absolute _fury_ brimming behind his eyes

“Do you remember when that leech cancelled his tour in 2013?”

Oh, Viktor was actually a little surprised that Yura even knew about that

“Yeah, I do,”

“He stayed in Hasetsu for a month recovering some illness that nobody will talk about, right?”

“Yes….”

“Well, it just so happens that Haru lives in the town right next to Hasetsu, rumor has it that they spent quite a bit of time together over that month wile Haru’s band was back in their hometown working on their next album,”

“Yeah I know that part, and?”

“And, what date did the leech quit his tour, do you remember?”

Actually….

No, no, Viktor didn’t remember the exact date, was he supposed to…?

“No-”

“July 24th, he started taking time off for being ‘sick’ on July 24th, do you know what _else_ happened on July 24th?”

“No but I’m sure you’re going to tell me,”

“Haruka Nanase suddenly took a break from work at the same time, no one knows what made him decide to do that, and you know what happened about eight hours before this announcement of theirs?”

“A hit-and-run?” Viktor guessed blandly

Yura blinked, his expression forming one of surprise rather than the affronting aggression he had been showing until now

“Actually yes,”

“And let me guess, it happened in Yuri’s hometown?”

“Yes, which is weirder than it sounds! Hasetsu is a quiet town, the worst that ever happens there is somebody losing a shoe! Now all of a sudden that talentless hack goes back there and there’s a fucking murder within days!?”

“That’s a bit of a strong assumption, don’t you think?”

“No! And if you needed MORE proof-”

“Which I do, as this is nothing but very loose circumstantial evidence so far,”

“There are photos,”

Viktor raised his brows, leaning back in his chair and waiting silently for Yura to produce these so-called “photos”

“Look, go to this web address when you get home and you’ll see alot more-”

“What web address? What site is that?” he huffed, leaning over the blonde’s shoulder as Yura pulled his phone out and pulled up the internet tab

“An archive of insane bullshit related to this incident,”

“And you just… so happen to have found this? Yura please tell me this isn’t your doing…”

“Not _just_ mine, there’s a cop in Japan who knows these two are fucking killers just like I do!”

“Oh you-… now you’ve got the police in on this!?”

“Actually, _he_ contacted _me_ , after Rin’s freak out on the phone, I tried to call him again, but he said he was just drunk and emotional and had lied about all that shit because he was upset with Haru at the time, I didn’t believe him and his cop friend Sousuke didn’t either, so-”

“So you two lunatics have decided to work on this smear campaign together? That’s just great Yura, as if Yuri doesn’t already-”

“Would you look at the damn photo!?” Yura snapped

Much against Viktor’s better judgement, he did indeed look down, eyebrows raising in confusion as he stared at the photo

“Ok, I see Yuri driving with Haru, what’s this got to do with anything?”

“This was taken at one in the morning in Hasetsu, on Tsukigomori street, just before the incident, only about a mile away, they were seen in Iwatobi- Haru’s town- right after, but they were never seen driving back,”

“So they took a different route or maybe Yuri slept over at Haru’s,” Viktor shrugged back

“He’s very affectionate with his friends and he and Haru were speculated as dating at the time, Yuri probably just sle-”

“No, Vitya, you don’t get it,”

That name again…

Viktor found it frustrating that it was being used against him like this, but he knew that for Yura to say it at all, it absolutely must have been something he was serious about and not just the average screaming session Viktor was often used to

“There is no record of this car ever going anywhere else- ever, Sousuke tried to track the license plate but this is the last time it’s ever seen, the car too, it just fucking vanishes, then the next day both of these assholes call off their work for an extended period of time? And even MORE bizarre is _this shit_ ,”

Viktor didn’t know why he was still entertaining this, but he looked down anyway, finding a completely non-suspect photo of Yuri and Haru posing with who he assumed to be fans in the middle of what looked like a convenience store

Nothing looked off though….

Yuri had some smudged make up going on and looked kind of tired, but that was really it

“What am I looking at here besides fans disturbing two tired performers in the middle of the night?”

Yura huffed loudly, placing one hand on the back of Viktor’s head and giving it a forceful push, as if that’s somehow going to make him more aware of what he should be looking at

“The jacket shitbrains! Why the fuck is your boyfriend wearing a JACKET in JULY?”

“It was nighttime, maybe he was cold? This was also after he came out so he’s probably wearing one of those sparkly sleeveless dresses he liked at the time,”

“Then why not bring his own? He’s wearing Haru’s,”

“People said they were dating back then, maybe it was a publicity stunt? Haru is a J-pop star, fans go rabid for any hint that they’re gay, and with Yuri just having come out… maybe he was trying to help Haru stage some buzz to go around for his band’s new album, and so you know, Yuri has a much bigger reason to be wearing a jacket in summer than Haru does, so why does _Haru_ have one, then, by your assessment that this is strange?”

“Exactly!! Why do EITHER of them have it!?”

….

Well that backfired spectacularly

“Yura…” Viktor sighed loudly, rubbing his eyes in annoyance

“And that car! Remember I said Rin is dating _two_ guys? Well the other one told him that Haru called him that night and asked to borrow his car, he said it was an emergency and that Katsuki would be driving!”

“Yeah, speaking of that, who’s car supposedly went missing? To my knowledge, Yuri didn’t have a car back then, and Haru doesn’t drive so it wasn’t his either,”

Maybe he knew a little too much about this Haru guy considering how little interest Viktor had in his music, but when the reports had gone around that Yuri had a boyfriend he had become just a little bit _invested_ in the so-called “boyfriend” at the time….

He had quit caring when they supposedly “broke up”

“I found that out- it belonged to his sister, and in case you’re thinking maybe it got returned without any harm? He bought her a new car days after this,”

“Yeah, he’s generous and loves his family,” Viktor huffed

“Yura, you said there’s a cop involved in all of this, so why hasn’t there been an investigation? Why haven’t they been arrested if they really are murderers like you said?”

“You don’t think Sousuke’s tried? They’re celebrities! When is the last time a celebrity was arrested for anything bigger than shoplifting!?”

“Yura this is ridiculous, you’re trying to tell me that the SWEETEST man I have EVER met is a killer based on a missing car and the fact that he was cold and hungry after a concert? You realize that I’ve heard more convincing conspiracy theories about Yuri being a lizard-person, don’t you?”

He wasn’t one, ofcourse

The lizard-people were out there, but Yuri wasn’t one of them, Viktor would have known by now

“Listen to yourself Viktor! You’re the one who made that post about him being a murderer in the first place, you obviously believed it at the time or else you never would have dug through all those shitty pop songs to find the information, you were willing to believe he was a murderer because of a badly written break-up song but now that I’ve presented you with REAL evidence you’re suddenly backing off of it!? Goddamn it this is the same thing that happened to Rin! He’s brainwashed you!”

“I never _really_ believed that post Yura,”

A _slight_ lie but he was blaming exhaustion for that brief lapse of judgement

“Chris was the one who proposed it in the first place, not me, I ran with it, and I am not _brainwashed_ ,”

“Look at yourself Vitya!!” Yura screamed

“Oh please, like you and Otabek don’t get a little kinky, I’ve seen how he dresses,”

“I’m not talking about that, he’s got you dressed up like a fucking _murder victim_! _HIS_ murder victim!”

“It’s Halloween, and I’m the one who came up with all of this,”

“That’s exactly the problem! You _chose_ to be dressed up like his bound and bled murder victim, that’s fucked up! It’s not cute or romantic and the fact that you think it is-”

“It’s HALLOWEEN!” Viktor nearly shouted

“You’re not yourself Vitya,” Yura accused quietly 

“Rin wasn’t either… that’s why I’m so sure of this, that’s why I’m so confident that he was telling me the truth! Rin doesn’t drink, he’s never gotten drunk, and when I talked to him he was LUCID, emotional sure, maybe a little hysterical, but he wasn’t DRUNK or high, or fucked up, he knew what he was saying and he was SCARED, I’ve talked to him since and he’s different, it’s weird! I’m worried something bad is going to happen to him and I’m worried something bad is going to happen to YOU- I don’t want you to be the next body they find, you fuck for brains! You’re scaring me Vitya, this isn’t you," 

"No you’re right, I’m not acting the way I used to,” Viktor said suddenly, finally standing up

“I’m finally _happy_ , I’m finally not ALONE, I’ve found someone who loves me and I’m happy with him and so ofcourse I act differently because I-… I _feel_ different… a good different, a GREAT different, I’m sorry that you don’t like that Yura, but I’m not going to go back to the bored, emotionless drone who would do anything for attention like I used to be, I’m Yuri’s now, and I’ll remain that way until my dying breath,”

With that, he turned and started to walk away, passing Otabek and hearing Yura’s chair push back, the blonde calling out for him to wait, but Viktor decided to ignore him, instead seeking out Yuri immediately at the bar and gently pressing his head against Yuri’s shoulder

“Vitya?” Yuri asked quietly, head tilting as he turned to gently cup Viktor’s face

“It didn’t go well… huh?”

Viktor only shook his head, inhaling tightly and forcing a smile

“Yuri, could you do something for me?”

“I-… guess so…?”

“I’d like you to transform me, please,”

Yuri smiled sweetly, leaning down and giving Viktor a soft kiss

“Ofcourse, Vitya, just leave it to me,”

_If you live like that, you live with ghosts_

“You’re sure about this Vitya?”

“Positive,”

Yuri and Phichit exchanged glances, but Phichit only shrugged and snapped his gloves on, which made Viktor visibly shudder

“Oh god Yuri, the next time we do something really kinky, please wear these lovely gloves,”

“I’ll remember your medical kink in the future Vitya, but you need to drink this,” Yuri said quietly, handing Viktor a shot glass full of tea

“Oh, liquid courage?”

“No, you can’t drink when you’re getting a tattoo, too dangerous, and it could ruin the ink,” Phichit replied instantly as he gently pressed the stencil onto Viktor’s back

“So it’s really just tea?” Viktor asked in surprise, tossing it back and handing the glass back to Yuri

“It’s tea… with some herbs,”

Phichit snorted at that- a little too loudly for Yuri’s comfort- and grinned brightly

Yuri was just glad that Phichit was seated _behind_ Viktor so his boyfriend couldn’t see the smirk on Phichit’s face

Tonight had been more than enough of a headache without their little secrets getting unraveled

“Ah, ok, and you said it’ll help with pain?”

“It’ll help you heal,” Yuri corrected

“But you’ll still have to be very careful for a while Vitya, no laying on your back, no getting it wet, let me clean and take care of it, this is an enormous decision and I still don’t think you should make it so quickly,”

But at the same time, Yuri couldn’t really protest, he understood how… _burning_ … the urge could be to memorialize something important to you when you go through a dramatic change, and after Viktor had explained his reasoning….

Besides, Yuri felt confident that he could take care of Viktor over the next several weeks, he could handle this, and this really was the best timing he could go for, it would be a _far_ bigger obstacle to try to take care of a tattoo during the tour……

“I know Yuri, I know, but I trust you, hm?” Viktor smiled warmly

Yuri exchanged another worried glance with Phichit, who only snorted and waved off his concern

“I’ve got this Yuri, don’t worry! I’ll help you take care of him,”

“It’s just a tattoo you guys, I’m not having surgery,” Viktor huffed back

“It’s still a big deal,” Yuri insisted as he carefully sat down in front of Viktor, resisting the urge to bite his nails as the buzz of the tattoo gun started up

“I know Yurochka, but I’ll be ok,” Viktor promised, reaching out to gently take Yuri’s hand and give it a squeeze

Yuri nodded slowly, smiling weakly himself as he watched Phichit press the gun into Viktor’s back, the designer squeezing his hand tighter- but not by much- as he let his head slump against the soft leather headrest of the chair

“You ok?”

“I’m fine, luckily for me I’m a masochist right?”

“Yeah, luckily,” Yuri huffed back, reaching for his tea with his free hand and taking a sip

He needed his nerves to calm….

“So, what’s the symbolism of this anyway? I get the phoenix, you’re becoming a new person and all that, but what about the peacock?”

“I was a peacock last Halloween when Yuri and I met, he was a snake, I inspired him then to become a butterfly, but… I think in alot of ways I’ve still been the peacock all this time…. proud, overly mindful of beauty, trying to express myself in luxury and the finer things, trying to use my beauty and dramatics to attract a mate… but now, I... want to be a phoenix, I want to rise up from who that person was, I’m a new person with Yuri, I’m _happy_ with Yuri, I’ve been reborn from the more hollow and lonely person I used to be, peacocks were also considered associates with the phoenix in alchemy, it has nothing to do with me personally but I found it to be an interesting connection to further cement my reasoning for choosing this, peacocks are associated with transformation too because of that, so it all seemed to fit very smoothly,”

“That’s really beautiful Viktor,” Phichit smiled softly as he worked

The tattoo was supposed to be a mirror of Yuri’s, black silhouettes of a phoenix rising out of a peacock across Viktor’s back

When Viktor had first told Yuri at the party what he wanted to do, Yuri had hesitated, but the more Viktor talked about it, the less Yuri could find it in himself to deny him

“I might grow my hair out too,” Viktor mused

“I used to have it really long as a teenager but my uncle never approved and insisted that I cut it all off when I started working for him- which was a brief stint, before I became my own designer- ever since I’ve gone back and forth with wanting it to be long again, I let it grow out to my shoulders last year but after Halloween I cut it all off again, I felt like I was trying to become a new person back then as well, I felt that my longer hair was… too much vulnerability, as though people could see the desperation in me when they looked at it, but maybe I’m wrong, maybe what I really need is to have it really long like that again, like when I was a teen, to feel more comfortable with myself, more carefree, care less what people think, more about what _I_ think, Yuri has helped me realize that I was caring about the opinions of others too much, and after tonight…. I really just want to be myself entirely, I want to stop focusing so much on other people,”

“Aww, you two are so good for eachother, I’m glad you ended up together,”

“So am I,” Yuri smiled affectionately, kissing Viktor’s nose- which wrinkled cutely under the sweet gesture

“And if you decide to go through with it, Vitya, I’ll be more than happy to help you style it, I’ve never wanted my own hair to be long, but I’ve always liked it on other people,”

“Oh really? Well I’ll keep that in mind, the hair may be for myself but there’s nothing wrong with charming my boyfriend with it as well,” Viktor smirked, before exhaling quietly and closing his eyes

“The pain really isn’t as bad as I thought it would be… how long will it take to heal?”

“Several weeks,”

“Mm? But didn’t your’s heal in only two…? It looked so perfect when you were filming _‘Cruel Summer’_ …. and you seemed like you weren’t in any pain…”

“Oh I-… already had had alot of it done before, the snake is over a year old, and the butterflies were a small individual wounds and-… and there was also make up… a-and-”

“ _And_ Yuri has some really great tea that promotes healing that you’re going to be drinking, right Yuri?”

Thank God for Phichit, saving his skin once more

“Right, yes, what Phich said,”

He’d have to secure more than just what limited stock of that tea he had, ofcourse, but Viktor didn’t need to know that, and he had enough to get him through a few days atleast…

“Ok,” Viktor hummed quietly, placated for now, thank Heavens…

“Hey Phichit, what took you so long to get to the party anyway? You didn’t come in until Yuri and I were almost ready to leave,”

“To be fair, you guys were trying to leave really early though,” Phichit pointed out with a wink

“I just wanted to make sure I gave Chris his candy, since he won’t be here to go trick-or-treating on Halloween,” Phichit winked back

…..

Yuri was almost _certain_ he was talking about edible underwear….

“What took so long though?”

“Had to pick it up at a special place, they don’t exactly sell this particular kind of candy at Walmart,”

Yep, edible underwear

“I got some for you guys too,”

Oh for fuck’s sake-

“Really? Thank you Phichit!! You’re such a good friend!”

“Yeah, I’m awesome, I know,”

Yuri just shook his head, giving Phichit a skeptical look, but Phichit just winked and gave him the OK symbol, so Yuri presumed that it wouldn’t be _too_ scandalous of a gift (as un-scandalous as edible underwear could be, that is)

Maybe he had actually gotten something tamer for Yuri and Viktor and just kept the underwear to Chris…

“Other than the weird confrontation with the Russian Yuri though, how was the party? Was it fun?”

“Weren’t you there?” Viktor asked in confusion, glancing briefly over his shoulder

“After I came in I spent the night giving Chris his gift so…. not really, and don’t move, I’ll screw up, I’m not a professional at this, remember? Not that you should move with professionals either but… you _especially_ shouldn’t with me, I’m not an amateur but it isn’t like I’ve done this hundreds of times either,”

Viktor only hummed, apologizing, settling again, and smiling adoringly up at Yuri

“Yeah, it was good, we talked to some pretty neat people and had made some cool connections, everybody liked our costumes… I’m glad I stuck around,”

Initially Viktor had wanted to leave right after the incident with the Russian Yuri, but Yuri (Katsuki) had insisted that they stay for atleast a little longer, hoping he could salvage Viktor’s good time if given long enough

He was relieved to see that that had worked

“Did Yuri enforce his 'no drinking in public’ policy?” Phichit asked teasingly

Viktor gasped, his mouth falling open

“He did!!! I thought that was a dom thing! Was it not?”

“Well it might be a dom thing for you but for me it’s just a _'Please don’t tempt me Phichit I’m weak’_ thing,” Phichit snickered back, much to Yuri’s embarrassment

“Yuri has ZERO alcohol tolerance so he only drinks in private and during special occasions like an album release where he really needs the destresser,”

“Oh so that’s what it is,” Viktor smirked

“I’d wondered….”

“Yeah well I’m thinking of giving it up entirely, it’s really not good for me,” Yuri sighed as he leaned back against the kitchen table

He had thought about it a few times now and had atleast relegated himself down to only drinking once in a blue moon, but he really should just quit…

He just kept getting tempted as it was a good way to make his anxiety vanish, but now that Viktor was around and he discovered how calming it was just to be in Viktor’s presence- not to mention that he had found calm and steadiness in domination too- he really had no reason to seek out relief from other sources, did he?

“How did you find that out anyway? That you were a weak drunk? I want to hear that story,” Viktor grinned teasingly

Yuri bit the tip of his tongue, his eyes averted and glancing down at the floor

“It.. isn’t a fun story,” he replied quietly

Viktor went quiet, before giving a soft _“Oh”_ and squeezing Yuri’s hand tighter

It was a relief to Yuri, he hoped that this would be enough to prevent Viktor from asking about it in the future

He didn’t want to risk ruining this relationship

He didn’t want to risk losing the best thing that he ever had

He could keep it, he felt confident

As long as Viktor never found out the truth- or atleast… as long as he didn’t find out the _entire_ truth- then he could keep it

…He hoped….

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Title song: Bad Blood- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcIy9NiNbmo
> 
> Scene Break Titles:
> 
> o.Death By A Thousand Cuts- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTEFSuFfgnU  
> o.Bad Blood- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcIy9NiNbmo


	9. So It Goes....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited by Venom <3

_This love left a permanent mark, this love is glowing in the dark  
This love is a life back from the dead_

Viktor loved his new tattoo

He couldn’t stop looking at it

Everytime he got the chance to see it, he eagerly took it

It was a source of pride and happiness for him and he was sure that he would keep admiring it every day for the rest of his life

Some people grew to regret their tattoos or hate them or feel indifferent to them, but Viktor was completely sure that that wouldn’t happen with him

That wouldn’t happen with this

“It’s a good thing we aren’t shooting for _'Paper Rings’_ for another couple of weeks, hopefully we’ll be able to show off your new tattoo in the video Vitya, that would be really cute, we could show off both of our tattoos together,”

“Yeah,” Viktor grinned enthusiastically, glancing over his shoulder as Yuri gently dragged the cloth over his back

“Did you hear back about the costumes yet?”

“No, Guang Hong said he was working on something really special for us though,”

“That’s awfully nice of him,”

Everytime Viktor thought that he couldn’t fall in love with Yuri Katsuki any more than he already had, he was proven wrong, and this was just a prime example of that

Yuri was so caring, so gentle and warm, so loving, he couldn’t believe he had even for a moment thought that a man like this could be capable of _killing someone_ just because of some badass song lyrics

….

And yet…

Yura’s words still played like a melody in his head, an earworm that wouldn’t leave him alone

He had tried so hard to forget, to ignore it, and honestly, if it had just been the words themselves, if it had just been the ridiculousness of the “evidence” then it would have been no problem, but it wasn’t really any of that that was plaguing Viktor…

It was how serious Yura had seemed

How upset he had been

It was knowing that he had felt so strongly about the issue that he was willing to call Viktor _Vitya_ over it, just to get Viktor's attention

None of that was normal

None of that was the Yuri Plisetsky he knew

And he was desperate to fix things, to return Yura to some semblance of normalcy…

But he didn’t know how

And he sure as hell wasn’t about to sacrifice anything he had with Yuri for something he still believed to be nothing but a crazy conspiracy theory

Hell, he wasn’t about to sacrifice anything he had with Yuri for anything in the _universe_

Yuri could take him down to the basement and show him all the bodies and Viktor would still do nothing but love him

God, he really had it bad, didn’t he?

“Vitya?” Yuri asked softly, stroking his fingers through Viktor’s hair

“I said you- OOF!”

Viktor had spun around suddenly, wrapping both arms around Yuri and kissing him deeply, passionately, one arm around his waist and the other looping up, his hand gently pressing against Yuri’s face

He could feel Yuri’s legs shaking, he could feel the way Yuri trembled beneath him, Yuri’s arms slowly moving to wrap around Viktor’s

Viktor picked him up slightly, just barely, lifting Yuri’s feet off of the ground high enough and long enough to spin them around and set Yuri down in the chair he had just been resting in

He pulled his lips away from his partner's, but only long enough to press them down on Yuri’s jaw, leaving a trail of affectionate kisses across his lover's face, down his neck, Viktor’s hands moving down to quickly yank at Yuri’s sweatpants, tugging them down with only a little help from Yuri himself as Viktor knelt down between his lover’s legs and hurriedly pulled his panties down as well

“V-Vitya…. Vitya…. w-what… brought this on?” Yuri gasped, panting quietly as he leaned back against the back of the chair, his hands moving up to tangle his fingers in Viktor’s hair as the designer moved his hands in slow, massaging motions over Yuri’s thighs

“I love you,” Viktor replied simply, pulling back and staring into Yuri’s eyes

“I love you, more than anyone or anything… I love you endlessly, more than I could ever put into words, I love you so much….”

Yuri went quiet for a moment, reaching down to gently cup Viktor’s face and stroke his thumb softly, lovingly, over his lover’s cheek

“What brought this on Vitenka? Is something wrong?”

Shaking his head, Viktor only took Yuri’s wrist and pressed a few kisses against him, the inside of his palm, the inside of his wrist, leaning in to kiss his lips

“Nothing is wrong Yurochka, I just…. I just feel overcome by how much I love you, and I feel that I have to touch you, I have to lose myself in you, I have to…. reaffirm to myself that you are here and you are mine and I am yours…. I’m sorry, I just-”

“Never apologize for this Vitenka,” Yuri ordered quietly, gently wrapping one hand around Viktor’s and giving it a soft squeeze as he reached out with the other and carefully curled his fingers into the ring of Viktor’s collar, giving it a small tug, reminding Viktor of who he was, of who he belonged to, of what he had and would never lose

“I love you, you are mine, and I am yours, you are my lover, aren’t you?”

Viktor nodded shakily, giving Yuri one last kiss before bending down and littering Yuri’s thighs in sweet, soft kisses

The musician gasped and moaned, his fingers tangling in Viktor’s hair as his lover trailed his mouth up his thighs, across his hips, gliding his tongue slowly down Yuri’s cock, making him gasp and cry out a shout of Viktor’s name, before taking him in his mouth

This was good

This was right

For the moment, all of his worries faded away and he could just…. _relax_

He felt at peace, staring up at Yuri and watching him fall apart above Viktor

Watching his _lover_ fall apart above Viktor

Whatever was there, whatever was going on that Yura was so upset about, and that couldn’t leave Viktor’s thoughts at night, he knew that it wouldn’t matter in the end

All that mattered was that he had Yuri, he _was_ Yuri’s

Yuri was his lover, and Viktor would love him until the end of time

_I loved you from the very first day_

“Vitya, are you going to tell me where we’re going?”

“Nope,”

Yuri rolled his eyes playfully and glanced out the window as Viktor drove

After the… _fun_ … they had in the bathroom that morning, Viktor had insisted that they get dressed in their costumes, but wouldn’t tell Yuri what his plans were aside from that

Yuri loved the costumes though, for what it was worth

A black angel and a white demon, somewhat fashionable but clearly more costumey than the murder costumes had been

Yuri had assumed that the demon was for him but Viktor had corrected that right away, then offered to trade if Yuri preferred the demon instead

_“I tailored them specifically to our measurements but-"_

_"No no Vitya, really, they’re so beautiful, I love them, and if you see me as an angel, then I would be more than happy to be one for you,”_

He meant every word, but he still couldn’t help feeling a little unsettled by the concept of being an _angel_ \- even if it was one that had fallen from grace, as Viktor had explained, just as the demon was one who had ascended from damnation, a perfect compliment to eachother, meeting in the middle so that they could be together despite being from different worlds

It was a beautiful story, like it always was when Viktor created backgrounds for his pieces

Yuri still persisted that Viktor should be a storyteller

Viktor still teasingly said he was crazy and that he didn’t have a knack for these things the way Yuri did

One day though, Yuri vowed, Viktor was going to write a song for him

“Ok, we’re here!!”

Pulled from his thoughts, Yuri blinked and looked up at where they were, now-…. thoroughly confused….

“A… hospital….?”

“Yeah, you said you’d never gotten to hand out candy to kids on Halloween right? Well here we are! You may not have any kids who can trick-or-treat at your house, but there are plenty of kids here who don’t have anyone’s house to trick-or-treat at, do you get what I’m saying?”

“Y-Yes! Yes ofcourse I do I just-…. you’re really ok spending your Halloween like this?”

Viktor laughed- happy and fond, and grinned from ear to ear

“Ofcourse I am Yurochka, I haven’t been the party boy who felt it was a must to spend my holidays at parties in some time now, I’m more than happy to be here, and more than happy to hand candy out to these sweet kids! And don’t worry, I already thought about what would happen with kids who couldn’t have candy- I brought some toys and small goodies like plastic jewelry and figurine erasers and such as well, I’ve thought this all through, and besides, I figure we should start getting used to things like being around kids and spending our holidays doing something quiet instead of parties and events, it’ll be easier to adjust to being great parents when that time comes and we have our own kids,”

Yuri, who had been in the process of unbuckling his seatbelt, stared at Viktor in sheer amazement, his mouth falling open

But before he could speak, Viktor seemed to take his stunned silence the wrong way

“I-I mean if you want to ofcourse! I-I just… well I remember you saying all these years that you wanted them and- o-oh… oh has.. has that changed? You haven’t mentioned it in a while and-”

“It hasn’t changed,” Yuri promised, smiling peacefully as he leaned closer and gently took Viktor’s hand, giving it a small squeeze and bringing Viktor’s hand to his lips, kissing his fingers lovingly

“I just… I’m kind of amazed, you’re dating one of the most rich and famous people alive, I could shower you with gifts and pretty things, take you all over the world and to any party or event you want… and instead you’re sitting here, after only two months, asking me about kids, wanting to spend Halloween doing this instead of going to some sort of festival or big party, _I love that_ , I’m amazed and.. I love it, thank you, Vitya,”

Viktor smiled shyly, leaning up to gently kiss Yuri’s lips

“You don’t need to thank me Yuroshka, I’m the one who should be thanking you, not the other way around,” he chuckled, letting their foreheads rest against eachother for a moment before finally unbuckling his seatbelt and sliding out of the car

“Come on, we’ve got alot of candy to carry!”

“Right behind you,” Yuri chuckled as he followed Viktor out of the car

“You know, this is the same place I fell in love with you the first time,” Viktor commented easily as he opened the door to the backseat and started reaching for a small red wagon- one filled with bags full of candy, toys, and little goodie bags

“What? At a hospital?” Yuri asked in confusion, making a move to reach for the wagon, but Viktor only swatted his hand away and mumbled an “I’ve got it darling” and wrapped his hands around the wagon himself

“Yeah, my uncle was having surgery and while I was waiting on him, I heard _'Teardrops On My Guitar’_ , that was the first moment I fell in love,”

With that, he tugged on the wagon, groaning and frowning at the fact that it wouldn’t budge

He shouldn’t have filled it up ahead of time but there wasn’t much they could do about it now…

“Vitya, I think my jacket is in the front seat, could you look for me please?”

Viktor paused, blinking at him in confusion but ultimately not arguing and, indeed, letting go of the wagon long enough to go check the front seat

“So you said you fell in love with me for the _first_ time here? How many times have you fallen in love with me?” Yuri asked curiously as he reached in and tugged the wagon out easily

For an average human it would have been extremely difficult with how full the wagon was, but for Yuri-…

“Oh, atleast a thousand times over the years,” Viktor replied seriously, smiling as he shut the door…. and frowning when he saw the wagon sitting neatly on the ground

“How did you-?”

“A thousand?” Yuri interrupted, clearly wanting to get the subject away from the heavy weight that he had just lifted

“Well I’ve fallen in love with you atleast _a hundred thousand_ times, Vitya,” he noted, reaching out and taking Viktor’s hands

“What? How is that even possible?”

“Because I fall in love with you once every minute of every day,” he replied quietly, wrapping his arms around Viktor’s neck and pulling him into a kiss

“Yuuuurriiiii….” Viktor whimpered, cupping his lover’s face gently and pouting at him

“You’re too sweet…. and you say that _I_ should write songs,” he huffed slightly

“I still think you should, one day Vitya, you’re going to write a song for me, mark my words,”

“Ok, I’ll believe it when it happens,” Viktor mused with a roll of his eyes, teasing, and leaned down to give Yuri another kiss

“I’ll wait for that day… now come on, we have candy to deliver, _watashi no tenshi_ ,”

Viktor gasped as Yuri took his hand and started to lead him to the entrance of the hospital, the handle of the wagon safely secured in his other hand

“Ooh, Yuri! What does that mean?”

“I’ll tell you later Vitya,” Yuri winked, earning another high-pitched wine of his name from Viktor’s sweet voice

He may have been dressed like a demon, but Viktor was and always would be an angel to Yuri

_Baby I could build a castle out of the bricks they threw at me  
And every day is like a battle, but every night with us is like a dream_

“Could I get a Mocha Cookie Crumble Frappuccino please? Thank you!!”

He’d have to remember to get a coffee for Yuri too, before he left

Yuri wasn’t a big coffee drinker, but he had a sweet tooth, and Viktor was determined to find a flavor that Yuri would really like so they could have cute Starbucks dates together

True, taking Yuri Katsuki to Starbucks might be a bit like taking an innocent mouse into a giant pit of cats but….

Well, he would protect Yuri

The second week of November and Viktor was getting pretty good at defending his beloved Yuri, he was proud to say

He felt sure of himself now that he could take care of Yuri whenever his darling lover needed him to

“Excuse me? Are you Viktor Nikiforov?”

Turning around, Viktor smiled brightly at the young woman standing behind him

“Yeah I am,”

“And you’re dating Yuri Katsuki right?”

By this point, he was completely used to that question, and nodded fondly

“Yep!”

“Oh my god, this is so amazing, can I get a picture with you please?”

“Sure!” Viktor smiled sweetly, posing in a casual and friendly fashion as the woman pulled her phone out

“You know, I’m Yuri’s BIGGEST fan,” she noted, seemingly more to herself than to him

_‘I know that you think that but his biggest fan is still me,’_ Viktor thought to himself, but he didn’t dare say it, he had enough tact to know better than that

“Yuri really appreciates that,” he said instead, which made the girl squeal with excitement as she snapped a few pictures with Viktor

“This is so great, SO great, thank you so much Mr. Nikiforov!”

“O-Oh please call me Viktor,”

_'She calls Yuri by his first name but calls me Mr. Nikiforov? I wonder how old she thinks I am…’_

Truthfully, he was probably overthinking it to believe that she was doing that because of age, but he had a tendency to judge himself a little more harshly than usual now- not because of Yuri, heavens no, but because of the people that chased after him

Viktor had known in the beginning that it would be a little bit of a struggle adjusting to dating someone with Yuri’s amount of fame, but he had never realized how much it would impact his self-esteem to become known only as “Yuri Katsuki’s boyfriend”, to be judged on everything he wore and every coffee he drank, to be constantly affronted with people’s opinions about him- ranging from those who were so supportive that he sort of worried what breaking up might do to them, to those who hated his guts and would sooner kill him in his sleep than to see him with Yuri, and then ofcourse…

“Viktor! Over here!”

“Ah, I have to go, thank you though, I’m really happy you’re a Yuri fan!”

Then there was the kind he was about to deal with…

“O-Oh trust me it’s no problem, thank YOU for the photos! My Instagram is going to blow up over this, oh my god, I met Yuri’s cute boyfriend-”

Well atleast she thought he was cute…

Waving to her politely, he paid for the coffee and took the cup with a brief “thanks” to the barista and headed over to the table he was being flagged down to

“How’s the fame treating you?”

“Ah, I’m getting used to it Emil, thanks,”

He wasn’t referring to Emil ofcourse, Emil was cool, it was who Emil was here to talk about that frustrated Viktor

“Still in the honeymoon phase?” the bearded man asked with a grin

“You mean the phase wherein I fully believe that Yuri is my entire universe? Yes, but I think this 'phase’ is going to last the rest of my life,” he smirked teasingly

Emil laughed joyfully, sipping on his own coffee and leaning back in his chair

“That’s great! It’ll help cushion this blow,”

…Great….

“I’m not going to the film festival, am I?” Viktor asked with a sigh

Emil frowned sympathetically, but shook his head

“I’m sorry, I tried to talk to Michele, but he’s…. well, his grudge against Yuri is just a little too strong,”

“Why? Because of Sara?”

“Partly, he still thinks that Yuri is trying to move in on her,”

“For fuck’s sake she’s GAY!!!”

He noticed belatedly that he _may_ have said that a little too loudly and sank down in his seat, trying to avoid the looks of the people around him as he sucked on his coffee

“I know, and she and Mila have tried to explain that about a million times, but Michele still thinks that she’s just pretending so he’ll let his guard down, or that she’s really bi and that Yuri is going to seduce her,”

“Well Michele is fucking CRAZY,”

“I know that,”

“And if Yuri was going to seduce her wouldn’t he have done that by now?”

“He thinks that Yuri was waiting to find someone who would be cool with being in a fake relationship with him so he could move in on Sara behind Michele’s back, and that you, as such a huge fanboy, would be the perfect one to fill that role, as you wouldn’t mind and would do well at being complimentary to him and affectionate with him…”

“What?!”

“And he said that even if you _were_ really his boyfriend that wouldn’t stop him from cheating on you and going after Sara anyway, because apparently she’s irresistible and can’t make her own decisions, and bisexuals are greedy and always horny,”

Now Viktor was just…. furious

He wasn’t sure what made him more angry, the sheer stupidity of the situation- the sheer amount of _absurdity_ -, the fact that biphobia was rearing its ugly head once again, or the fact that all of this was _still_ being blown back on Yuri

No matter how hard Yuri tried to play the game “the right way”, it was never going to stop him from failing in the eyes of certain people

He could do everything right and people would still have their stupid opinions about him- their _wrong_ opinions…

Viktor wanted to throw his coffee at Michele- too bad the bastard wasn’t actually there

“ _Ublyudok…._ ”

“You said it,” Emil winked playfully at him

“To make matters worse, Heather Cormack is the organizer and she hates Yuri too,”

“What? What did Yuri ever do to this Heather woman?”

The issue with Michele was an obscenely old one and very well known, Viktor wasn’t surprised by it, but apparently there was now a new contender for the Stupidity Awards

“She’s a JJ fan,”

“ _Chertov ublyudok_ …”

“Exactly,”

Shaking his head, Viktor put his head in his hands and groaned lowly to himself

Ofcourse….

The feud between Yuri and JJ was a few years old now and less a feud, more a cold war occasionally heated up by Hurricane JJ fucking shit up

According to the media- and later confirmed by Yuri himself- JJ had been angry during the 2016 VMAs that Yuri took home a bunch of awards and he didn’t, and in his bitterness and frustration, had made a few… less than kind comments to the media about Yuri

Yuri had tried to defend himself later on and the original comments he made were twisted and taken out of context by the people reporting on it to stir the feud on- which had created an all-out war

Mostly, JJ had come at Yuri guns blazing, and Yuri had struggled to keep himself afloat

Yuri’s celebrity friends had crowded around him and made his arguments for him- which honestly only made the situation worse, as not all of Yuri’s friends had the sugar-and-honey tongue that Yuri had, and their efforts to defend Yuri had only succeeded in attacking JJ, who had his _own_ friends to defend him

It turned into an all out war in a matter of days

Fans were divided just as much as the personal friends of the musicians involved, and people in Hollywood had publicly chosen sides that still remained to this day

The nail in the coffin had been Yuri’s _“Bad Blood”_ video, which was considered by some to be the first appearance of Eros Era Yuri, wherein he had an official Yuri Squad formed to have his back

….

The amount of times Viktor had fantasized about being part of that squad ~~or about being dominated by Yuri when he was _leading_ that squad~~ was a little obscene

Ever since, the feud would flare up from time to time, but it was still mostly considered a cold war- except for moments like this

Michele was already Team JJ- opposing Sara, who had even appeared in Yuri’s video as his right-hand woman- and now apparently this Heather woman was Team JJ too

“I’m sorry Viktor, you know if it were up to me I’d wear your suit and invite you and Yuri along, but Michele-”

“It’s alright Emil,” Viktor said suddenly, his smile almost _frightening_ as he leaned back in his chair and gave a small shrug

“I’d rather not support anything that they create anyhow, Michele’s opinion goes beyond just hating a celebrity, it’s smearing an entire community, and I may not know this Heather woman but if she’s going to be that way then I would prefer I didn’t know her anyway,” he shrugged

“Bold decision Viktor,” Emil smirked, eyebrows raised

“I’ll be going to the SAG awards at the beginning of the year, want to come to that?”

“Sure! I-… oh… wait… that… when is that?”

“January 24th,”

“Oh… I can’t, I’ll be in Japan with Yuri,”

“That’s ok, you’ll be back by the Oscars though won’t you?”

Would he…?

He was still trying to familiarize himself with Yuri’s schedule…

“I’m not sure… I’m touring with him, I know we’ll be home on Valentine’s Day but I’m not sure if we’ll be here on the ninth or not…”

“Mm, it’s nice dating a huge celebrity with a packed schedule and a laundry list of enemies, isn’t it?” Emil teased

But that only served to irk Viktor even further

“Oh I’m not so worried about the award shows anyway Emil, after all, it’s not like there will be a lack of them in the future with Yuri being one of the most decorated artists of all time and all…. and considering how high _'Lover’_ has already climbed in less than three months…. I mean as it is I’ll be going to the MET gala with him, so I don’t mind just designing for you and not going to the other shows,” he shrugged, sipping his own coffee

Designers only occasionally went to shows like this anyway, the only reason he really had any tendency to go to shows and events that had nothing to do with fashion were because he had an in with some of the other celebrities going and he usually ended up as someone’s arm candy 

Now he didn’t have to worry about that

“I’ve always preferred music awards to screen awards anyway,”

“Wait… you said you’re going to the MET?”

“Yeeeeep,” Viktor grinned, leaning back in his chair and staring at Emil’s completely shocked face

“And he invited you as his date or his designer?” Emil asked slowly

And _oh_ the amount of pleasure it gave Viktor when he said “Both”

Emil looked like he was going to have an aneurysm, and considering that Emil knew EXACTLY how hard it was to get invited to the MET as a designer, Viktor really wouldn’t blame him

So he leaned back and sipped his coffee, suddenly feeling quite a bit better about himself

“It’s nice dating a huge celebrity with a packed schedule and a laundry list of friends," 

_My hands are shaking from holding back from you_

"What do you think?”

“Oh… I like that,” Yuri noted softly, leaning a little closer to the mirror so he could see the way the glitter in the pink lipstick shimmered in the light

It was a little sweeter than what he would usually wear as lipstick, he was really more of a red person, but he really liked it, and with _“Paper Rings”_ being such an inherently sweet song, he definitely felt the shade was fitting

“I’m really glad! I saw the dress you’re wearing and I think it’s going to fit nicely,”

“I think so too,” Yuri agreed, turning in his chair and smiling up at his make up artist

“Thanks Yuko,”

“Oh no problem! Do you mind if I get a picture for the girls?”

“Ofcourse not!” Yuri answered brightly, glancing up at the clock briefly before leaning back in the makeup chair so Yuko could get her picture

Viktor should be here any time no-

“Yuri!!”

Glancing at the door as it was flung open, Yuri’s eyebrows raised, head tilting

Ah…. Viktor was wearing the crop top again….

Yuri had started learning Viktor’s Language by now, he knew that he pulled out the crop top when he was feeling frustrated or insecure about Yuri’s fanbase in some way

It was kind of like the much more obvious version of his collar, but… sort of in reverse?

Instead of advertising that _he_ was Yuri’s, it was more like advertising that Yuri was _his_

Or.. maybe just declaring even louder that he was a fan of Yuri’s

In truth he wasn’t entirely sure, but he had a gleam of an idea

“…You know what? I’m gonna go get a doughnut, do you want a doughnut Yuri?”

“Please and thank you,” Yuri replied politely

Bless Yuko, she knew that Something was going on

What that “Something” was, however, was still yet to be determined

“Me too please Yuko,” Viktor sighed loudly as he trudged into the dressing room

Yuko gave him a sympathetic nod and smile and then headed out, shutting the door behind her and leaving the two lovers alone

“I see the crop top has returned,” Yuri noted as Viktor handed him a cup of coffee

“Uh-huh,”

“Want to tell me about it?”

“Michele Crispino is a jackass,” Viktor huffed back, collapsing to the floor dramatically and shifting around to kneel in front of Yuri

“JJ is a jackass, Heather Cormack is a jackass,”

“Who’s Heather Cormack?”

“I don’t know but she’s a jackass,”

Yuri chuckled softly in amusement, his eyes light as he leaned forward, gently setting his foot on Viktor’s shoulder and giving it a small push

“Go get my dress and heels Vitya,”

Viktor didn’t hesitate, practically springing to his feet and heading over to the corner to get the clothes for the video

“Which one first, Sir?”

Ah, a new and particularly thrilling twinge to their ever-growing relationship

“The pink one,”

It was kind of amazing to him how things developed like that

One moment he was single, the next he was dating the most incredible man he had ever met

One moment he was alone, the next he was in love

One moment they were still dipping their toes loosely in the pools of kink, the next….

“Which heels, Sir?”

“The silver ones,”

A fun fact that Yuri had learned over the last few weeks was that submission tended to help Viktor feel less insecure about things

The more control Yuri had, the more possessive Yuri was, the better Viktor felt

He had learned that after the designer had become particularly on edge during the People’s Choice Awards a few nights prior

It was their first award show together, the first time that Viktor had really had much attention at all paid to him during a big event like that, and it had been a little…

Well, it had been _alot_ for him

Going home and letting Yuri tie him up and simply _be_ with him for two hours had been immensely relaxing, and ever since, Yuri had been quickly learning more about how to put Viktor at ease in smaller ways and in more public places so that he wouldn’t get so tense in the future

“What did the jackasses do?” Yuri asked casually, stepping out of the makeup chair upon Viktor’s return

“Just….” Viktor paused, shaking his head

“Doesn’t matter, it’s stupid,”

“No it isn’t, if it’s upsetting you then it isn’t stupid,” yes

Viktor sucked on his lower lip, his eyes averted for the moment before finally glancing up at Yuri’s reassuring but expectant expression

“I wanted to surprise you with tickets to the Berlin Film Festival, for Valentine’s Day, but…. Michele Crispino apparently has big sway on the committee- and some woman named Heather Cormack- so I can’t get tickets… I’m sorry Yuri…”

Wait… was that really what he was upset about…?

Yuri grinned from ear to ear, his expression warm and loving as he gently cupped Viktor’s face and gave him a slow, soft kiss

“It’s ok, Vitya, it’s fine,” he said with a soft, low chuckle, pulling back and carefully slipping his robe off, delighted by the soft gasp of Viktor’s breath

“I’m actually happy that it didn’t work out, I hate film festivals,”

“Wait really? But… but I thought you loved movies…?”

“I do, but I like to actually ENJOY them, not... have to sit in a stuffy room and act like a celebrity while I watch them, that’s one reason I rarely go to the cinema these days, I always have to go in disguise and pray nobody sees me…”

Cupping Viktor’s cheek again, he leaned closer and pressed their foreheads together

“Vitya I am _so_ thankful for you trying to do something romantic like that for Valentine’s Day but … I would _really_ rather stay home and watch things with you in our sweats, where I can… scream and laugh and cry in peace? And eat a bunch of popcorn and snuggle with you and don’t have to wear some uncomfortable flashy costume just to sit in a dark theater all night… besides, film festival movies can get so pretentious and Oscar-baity, I mean I hate that stuff, if it makes me cry, it’s a no, I am _so_ much more a 'cheap thrills, $0.99 horror flick’ type of guy,”

Viktor snickered, probably because he felt the same way- atleast from what Yuri knew of his tastes- and carefully unzipped Yuri’s dress to help him put it on

“I’m so happy that you tried… but I’m really glad it didn’t work out,”

“So what would you prefer to do for Valentine’s Day then? Stay home and binge scary movies and eat chocolate covered strawberries on the couch?”

“Um, _yes_?”

“Really?” Viktor grinned, zipping Yuri’s dress up for him, once it was settled comfortably

“If that’s ok with you,”

“Oh Yuri,” Viktor sighed softly, taking Yuri’s hand and kissing his fingers

“I love that idea,”

“Good,” Yuri smiled back, sitting down in his make up chair once more and leaning back

“Now put my heels on for me, Vitya, and then get your robe on so you can get your makeup done,”

Viktor smiled with the same love and affection and _happiness_ that Yuri had left him with this morning, and didn’t hesitate to kneel down once again and start helping Yuri into his heels, buckling the straps for him around his ankles and seeming to be rather content and relaxed with his task

Yuri was overjoyed to see how easily he could calm him, now that he actually knew what Viktor needed

“Vitya… do you still plan on wearing the collar for the video?”

Ever since getting it, Viktor had only taken it off at the award show a few nights ago, due to the dress code, but in its place he had designed a special tie with Yuri’s initials at the bottom

Yuri expected him to be wearing the collar at home, but he was always surprised at the dedication Viktor had to wearing it in public

He was always prepared to get Viktor something else to wear in public, like a necklace or something, just in case the attention became too much for him, in case the speculation neared too close to the belt, in case….

“Ofcourse! … If… that’s ok…?”

But Viktor always surprised him

“It’s always ok Vitya,” Yuri promised, testing out the step in his heel as he pressed it firmly against Viktor’s shoulder, grinning pleasantly at the groan that came from Viktor in response

_Good_

“Yurochka…” he breathed softly, leaning closer and rubbing his cheek against Yuri’s calf

“Ah.. I need my other shoe Vitenka, don’t get distracted on me _yet_ ,”

Viktor groaned, but immediately picked up the shoe, much to Yuri’s delight

He was so wonderfully obedient, so eager to please, so happy just to have Yuri’s attention

Yuri didn’t know how he had ever gotten so lucky

He decided to try the coffee Viktor had bought for him while he waited, taking extra care not to spill as he took a sip, glad for the stained lipstick so it wouldn’t get messed up

Huh…

It was actually pretty good

He still wasn’t much of a coffee person, but this was his favorite try at it yet

“Yuri? ...Sir?”

Pulling his attention away from the drink, Yuri noted that his shoes were now perfectly in place and grinned as he tested the other one on Viktor’s opposite shoulder, earning another groan of pleasure from him as he did so

“Perfect, thank you Vitenka,”

“Ofcourse, you know I love to do whatever you ask of me, my butterfly lover,”

Yuri had to bite the inside of his lip, carefully avoiding the outside, to keep from swooning too hard

Viktor had come up with that one last week and he had to confess that it was easily his favorite name yet

“Vitya-”

Ah… there was a knock at the door, interrupting them, much to Yuri’s disappointment

But he was actually pretty relieved it hadn’t come any sooner, so he really shouldn’t complain…

“Come in,” he called, knowing that Viktor didn’t mind people seeing him on his knees

Phichit poked his head in the door, holding out a couple of doughnuts from the snack table and winking at Yuri

“Just came to drop these off, continue with your foreplay~ ...Although you really shouldn’t have them if you already have your lips done Yuri,”

“I think Yuko just wanted to give us some time alone, but thanks Peach,” Yuri replied, sliding out of his chair easily and stepping towards the door

“Vitenka, go on and get your robe on please,”

He had never intended to go further than a few light, mostly-clothed moments of submission for his lover while they were on set, so Viktor’s pout didn’t make him feel _too_ guilty

Especially as he would make it up to him later

“Yes Yuri,” he sighed heavily, acting like a true drama queen as he flopped down on his back and forced himself slowly up, much to Phichit’s amusement

“You two are adorable, my god, I’m so happy for your existence,”

“Well thank you,” Yuri snickered, peeling a piece- a very small piece, for make up’s sake- of doughnut off of one of the sugary sweets

“You’re welcome, Celestino wants to meet Viktor before you start rolling though, something about getting a feel for what he’s working with,”

“Could you tell Yuko to come in and do Vitya’s make up then? And Celestino that we’ll be there in about twenty minutes?”

“You got it boss,” Phichit nodded, giving a salute

“Oh! Phichit!” Viktor shouted suddenly, his hands on the spare robe Yuri had gotten for him, but not yet having changed into it

“Could you do me a favor pretty please?”

“Oh uh, sure? What is it?”

“Could you do some social media posts of us today pretty please? On mine _and_ Yuri’s accounts? I’ll gladly give you my phone,”

“Oh, sure, what sorta things were you thinking?”

“Just cute things you know? Like those bouncy videos on tic tac?”

Phichit snort-laughed, covering his mouth quickly and shaking his head

“Um, I think you mean TikTok-”

“And things with flower crowns, and Instagram! Make sure Instagram has alot of pictures of Yuri and I in costumes and posing all cute! In fact can you get one of us right now?”

“Vitya, this wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with the conversation we were having earlier, would it?” Yuri asked, eyebrows raised

“Yeah, yeah it does! I was thinking, JJ got to be all gross all over social media with his straightness when he met his girlfriend, I want to gay it up dammit! You are mine, Yurochka, and I am yours, and I am STILL your biggest fan no matter what some girl at Starbucks thinks!”

Wait what-?

“People have yet to see exactly how grossly adorable we can be, and I am DETERMINED to make sure that from now on anyone who knows my name associates me with you! I am FIRMLY on Team Yuri and I am never changing and I want people to know that so that the lovers can stick with me and the haters can fuck right off and not get me confused with someone who’s on the fence about you!”

“Oh I don’t think that could _ever_ happen, but I’ll still happily make the posts,” Phichit laughed enthusiastically, slipping into the dressing room and kicking the door shut behind him as he pulled his phone out of his pocket

“You are _very_ possessive,” Yuri noted with an amused smile, although he didn’t hesitate to cross the room to where Viktor was currently standing

“And supportive, I’m also very supportive,” Viktor insisted back, practically pouting as he wrapped his arms tightly around Yuri and peppered kisses against him, pulling a few happy laughs from the musician as Phichit snapped photos

“Hey, Yuri…. remember how I asked if I could design something for you to wear to New York Fashion Week?”

“Mm, yeah?”

“Well, I think I’ve got the idea I need,” Viktor smirked devilishly

Yuri’s eyebrows raised, but he wasn’t concerned by what Viktor said- if anything, he was happy about it

He trusted his lover, and he adored Viktor as a designer

Whatever it was- and whatever had been brought about by the day’s events- Yuri was more than confident that it would be stunning in the end

“Mm.. Yuri…” Viktor breathed, resting his head against Yuri’s shoulder and squeezing him tighter

“You going to be alright to do the video?" Yuri teased

"Yes,” Viktor insisted, looking up with fierce, determined eyes

“I’ll be the best partner you’ve ever had,”

Yuri’s expression softened and he leaned closer, cupping Viktor’s face and gently smoothing his thumb down over his cheek

“Of that, Vitenka, I have no doubt,”

“I’ll be the best partner you’ve ever had,”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Japanese translation according to Google translate- "My angel"  
> Russian translation according to Google translate- "Bastard", "Fucking bastard"
> 
> Chapter Title Song: So It Goes...- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxg8zHmJ32o
> 
> Scene Break Titles:
> 
> o.This Love- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ECCL5N2WxA  
> o.Superman- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oQ9H9XWzV4s  
> o.New Romantics- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wyK7YuwUWsU  
> o.Dress- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_GneCw-IoA


	10. Haunted

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited by Venom <3

_Touch me and you’ll never be alone_

The sudden interest Viktor had held in being more public about their relationship- which Yuri hadn’t really thought was even _possible_ \- hadn’t faded after that one incident like Yuri probably assumed it would have

Viktor had a long term plan involving _several_ steps that would guarantee his relationship with Yuri get even more public- or perhaps better said, that Viktor’s very obvious and continual support of Yuri would become even more well known

He really was determined to make it obvious that his loyalty was firmly and _entirely_ in Yuri’s camp, even though Yuri wasn’t really involved in any active feuds- except for the one with Yuri Plisetsky, which was perpetually active

His newest plan was to do a lip sync video for _“…Ready For It?”_ , because, in his own words, _“I’ve always been gay Yuri but I’d never crumpled to the floor and sobbed in sheer gayness before that video”_

Yuri didn’t get it, but he was happy that Viktor liked it, and he was more than happy to be the subject of Viktor’s homemade shot-on-a-cellphone-at-two-in-the-morning video

Viktor made a good thief, Yuri had said

He looked good in leather and was surprisingly good at keeping up with the faster paced rapping in the song, he looked stunning wearing all black and was more than happy to be a little sensual with it as he knelt down in front of Yuri- who was the “killer” mentioned in the song- though he really didn’t dress much differently than Viktor, he was still wearing black leather and heels, the main difference really was the butcher knife that he teasingly played with from time to time in the video

Viktor was more and more turned on by more and more things that he probably should _not_ feel turned on by as the days passed

Ultimately the video took only a couple of hours to make, and Viktor was rather proud of himself when he posted it

“Officially my second music video, but surely not my last,” he hummed happily as he leaned down to give Yuri a soft kiss

_“Paper Rings”_ had been released just a few days prior, so Yuri could give more of his attention to Viktor’s side project and encouraged him to post it as soon as it was done instead of waiting on the official video to be finished, as Yuri had quite explicitly wanted that one to be Viktor’s video debut, and Viktor really couldn’t argue with him

“Oh definitely not,” Yuri agreed with a gentle smile, giving Viktor a kiss and smirking playfully at him as he hopped down from the table he had been perched on

“I’m hungry, what do you want to do for dinner? Order in? Cook? Phichit is with Chris tonight so we have the house to ourselves,”

“Actually….” Viktor said slowly, biting his lip and turning a bit red

“I.. Yuri… could I ask you for something?”

“Hm? Sure, what is it?”

Viktor smiled shyly, rubbing the back of his neck and swaying a little, a sure sign that he was about to ask for something he was nervous about- it was probably sexual

“Well… remember when I said this video of yours was sort of like… my second gay awakening?”

“Yes?”

“I ah…”

He gazed down, and Yuri’s eyes followed

“Oh,” he hummed playfully, stepping closer to Viktor when he noticed the rather prominent bulge pressing against Viktor’s tight leather pants

“I get it Vitenka, you’re hungry, just not for food,”

Viktor nodded shyly, still looking like the cat who had fallen into a fish tank trying to catch the fish

“I’ve fantasized about you from that video so many times… and I was just hoping…”

“That I would make your fantasy a reality?”

“I’ll do anything you want,” Viktor said quickly

“I can cook, and I’ll-”

“Wait, Vitya,” Yuri chuckled lightly, taking Viktor’s hand

“Vitya, you don’t have to do anything for me, I don’t mind doing it,”

“R-Really?”

“Yes, just because we enjoy the power play relationship, it doesn’t mean that everytime you ask for something you have to do something else for it, I wanted the amount of control I take with you to be a bit loose for exactly this reason- or.. this is _one of_ the reasons anyway… you know I do like to fuck you just because I like to fuck you, right?”

Viktor’s lips twitched upwards and he gave a happy, fond nod as Yuri leaned up to kiss him

“I just wanted to be sure… I was willing to sell my soul for this fantasy,”

“Oh I can tell,” Yuri smirked as he moved his fingers slowly up Viktor’s arms, his eyes practically dancing with delight as he gently but firmly pushed Viktor into the swerving chair behind them

Yuri had a storage room in his house, something he used primarily to store merchandise when he got in the product proofs, or sometimes things like clothes that he had to try on before choosing a designer for an award show- ha, he wouldn’t have _THAT_ problem anymore

The storage room was perfect though, as it was essentially empty except for the table and chair and had been the perfect place to shoot a video that was heavy on dancing and light on decorations

This is where they found themselves now, and Viktor was more than happy with it

“Now tell me Vitenka, what would you like out of this fantasy?”

Viktor’s eyes traced slowly up Yuri’s body, the black heels, the leather pants, the studded tank top and leather jacket, the fingerless gloves….

Yuri was so gorgeous that he wanted to _cry_

“Ah… actually could you…. would you mind… singing?”

“Singing?” Yuri asked with surprise

Viktor nodded eagerly, his face still pink

“Could you sing? Please? I just-… I know it probably sounds kind of crazy but…”

“It doesn’t sound crazy,” Yuri promised, leaning up to give Viktor a kiss on the forehead

“What else would you like from this particular fantasy?”

Viktor’s eyes traveled down to Yuri’s shoes, and the musician chuckled, his expression soft and loving

“Ofcourse, anything else specific?”

“Would it be weird for me to ask for the knife?”

“You mean for me to use it on you? No, that isn’t weird, but it also isn’t going to happen, this isn’t the situation for that kind of play and I’m not skilled enough to do something like that at the moment anyway,”

“N-No not-… not like… actually cutting but-… just.. a threat…?”

Yuri’s eyebrows raised, head tilting as he stepped forward and gently placed the flat of the blade under Viktor’s chin, the tip aimed right at his throat

"Something like this?”

_“Fuck yes,”_

Just as quickly as Yuri had placed the blade there, however, he drew it away, much to Viktor’s disappointment

“I really don’t know about that Vitenka, that can get very dangerous very quickly and when you add in inexperience and the other components calling for higher energy and less precision…”

“Even if you aren’t touching me with it?”

Yuri was quiet for a moment, considering, before putting the knife down on the table and gently slid his fingers under Viktor’s chin in its place

“We’ll see, ok? But I’m definitely not going to touch you with it and I’m definitely going to let it get too close to you, if I use it at all, it’s a prop for when I dance, understand?”

“Yes Sir,”

“Good boy,”

Viktor wasn’t sure what Yuri was intending, he wasn’t sure how big of a chance he actually had of getting to witness the magnificence of that blade anywhere near him, but he was holding out hope for it

“You really want to hear me sing this before I fuck you Vitya?”

“Y-Yes, please Sir…. and that… that thing you do at the beginning with clearing your throat… _holy shit_ …”

With the way Yuri was smirking, Viktor was almost _sure_ that he had heard that one before- probably a dozen times or so atleast

He certainly remembered when _“…Ready For It?”_ dropped and almost everyone he followed on social media collectively lost their minds

Even Chris had said that he’d give Yuri anything he wanted just to have Yuri touch him _once_ during that entire routine

Viktor hadn’t known a person alive- besides the haters, that is- who hadn’t absolutely _died_ at the sound of Yuri Katsuki clearing his throat before he _murdered the entire video_

“Alright then,” he said casually, raising one leg up easily and pressing his heel into Viktor’s thigh as he leaned in closer, his eyes practically piercing through Viktor’s own icy blue gaze

“Stay here Vitenka, I’ll be right back,”

“Y-Yes Sir,” Viktor mumbled quickly, exhaling shakily as Yuri moved his foot down and then walked out of the room, clearly taking his time as he walked… and leaving Viktor as a melted mess in the meantime

He shakily reached into his pocket and removed his phone, setting it on the table before he forgot, because that poor phone had been slung in all sorts of directions along with his pants over these last couple of months and he was afraid it would get damaged if they didn’t stop with that

His heart was racing, he felt like he was too full of nervous, excited energy to truly keep still as Yuri had demanded, surely he could stand to check a few messages in the meantime, right?

So he unlocked his phone quickly and glanced down at his immediate alerts, eyes lighting up with excitement when he saw that Yuri’s birthday gift had been delivered

Good, Yuri’s birthday was on the 29th so Viktor was relieved that it had officially arrived

He’d have to make an excuse to go back home before the night was over to make sure that the package was secured, but he was sure it could wait until after this

There weren’t many missed emails, luckily, but there were some text messages…

_You’re fucking stupid, do you know that?_

Ah… that was from Yura….

_I guess you haven’t found the bodies yet_

Another from Yura

_Viktor. Please._

Viktor could feel his heart starting to ache

He wasn’t ignoring Yura- far from it, he had been hoping for weeks that his kinda-sorta-relative would contact him, but…

But he knew these messages were about the video

The thing was though, if Yura was trying to reach out to him-

_“Ahem?”_

Oh _shit_ Yuri cleared his throat

Viktor almost dropped his phone, his attention _entirely_ on the beauty standing in front of him now, the messages forgotten

He hurried to put the phone down, face now completely red as he took in the sight of Yuri walking back towards him with a pair of handcuffs twirling on one finger and a bottle of lube in his other hand

….

Viktor Nikiforov was about to die the most glorious death imaginable

_'Cause darling I’m a nightmare dressed like a daydream_

“F-Fuck….”

“I’m glad you’re happy,”

_Yuri_ was sure as hell happy

He was grinning like the cat who had caught the canary

And he sort of had

Viktor muttered something in Russian under his breath, it was probably just different variations of profanity, if what little Russian Yuri had observed said anything about it

It just made him feel happier

He felt smug and overjoyed, knowing that Viktor was stumbling out behind him, only barely able to keep himself standing up mostly straight as they headed for the kitchen

Yuri practically glided on clouds with the way he walked, confident and energized and feeling _fantastic_ , even having decided to keep his heels on

Viktor, in the meantime, looked half-dead

He looked as though he had just been hit by a very sexual bus and was now suffering the consequences of that collision

But Yuri _knew_ that he was happy, and it was a very pleasurable collision

“Sit down Vitya, I’ll cook something, have I made katsudon for you yet?” he asked with a happy hum, wasting no time in heading to the fridge and beginning to get the ingredients out

“N-No…?” Viktor mumbled back, not arguing as he slumped down into the chair at the kitchen table, watching Yuri in what could only be described as “mildly concerned shock”

“You’re going to love it, it’s my favorite food, I’m not nearly as good at cooking it as my mother is but I can still give it a try, you look far too exhausted to cook, you can make something for me tomorrow,” he hummed, glancing at Viktor over his shoulder and finally taking pity on him

“I’ll make you some tea, too,”

“Uh-huh…” Viktor mumbled quietly, watching as Yuri fluttered about the kitchen like-.. well… a butterfly

“Y-Yurka… um… how are you not tired?”

“Hm? I’ve told you before, I have high stamina,”

Viktor pouted, looking like a scolded child as Yuri grabbed a step-stool from the corner and positioned it under the cabinet he needed to reach

Normally he would ask Viktor to do this for him, but right at the moment he didn’t even trust Viktor to reach something at eye-level, much less something higher up

“Right, yeah, that 'high stamina’ thing only goes so far though, that was the best sex I’ve ever had-”

“Thank you, same to you,”

“-Great, but… but you’re acting like you just got off of some juice cleanse or something, or like you slung back a Red Bull, how are you not even a LITTLE bit tired or in pain? I mean, fuck Yuri, shouldn’t your muscles be sore atleast?”

“With how much sex we have? I doubt it,”

This answer didn’t seem to satisfy Viktor very much though, and Yuri could sympathize, really, but…

But what was he going to say?

He couldn’t exactly tell him the _truth_

Biting his lip, he put the kettle on and sighed quietly as he walked over to his boyfriend, crouching down in front of him and giving him a soft kiss on the cheek

“Are you alright Vitya? I didn’t mean to be that rough, if I hurt you-”

“N-No! No, Yurochka, really, you didn’t,” Viktor said quickly

“I’m just tired and… admittedly a little sore….”

Understandable for a man who had just been fucked three times over the course of two hours

“I can’t understand how you’re not feeling this _at all_ ,” Viktor added belatedly

Yuri only smiled sweetly and kissed his forehead, stroking his thumb over Viktor’s cheek again

“I’ll get you some Ibuprofen and by the time I get back the water for the tea should be ready, or would you prefer to come with me? Do you need to stay close?”

Viktor sighed quietly, gently placing his hand over Yuri’s, his eyes tired and…. pleading….

Yuri immediately felt horrible, swallowing down the insecurities and massive amounts of guilt that were starting to pour through him

“I’m ok Yurka, I just… I’m starting to think… it’s strange, that’s all, you never seem to be tired at all after we have sex, not even when we’re rough, not even when we’re at it for ages, you’re never sore at all and you never seem to need to lay down and rest, only when it’s late at night, yet… that always seems less to do with physical exhaustion and more to do with your desire to sleep…. and now that I think about it, our first night together, you woke up feeling totally peppy, you were a virgin Yuri, you should have felt _some_ pain from the new use of muscles, at the absolute least, and considering we had spent all day at Disneyland-…..”

Viktor paused, pursing his lips

“I wasn’t in pain either though….. I hadn’t had sex for a wile at that point, a little… _self-fantasizing_ but… I should have been aching atleast a little bit, especially after Disneyland, and yet…..”

“Perhaps we’re just a good fit,” Yuri said with a gentle smile, placating, hoping that he wouldn’t somehow be outed because of _sex_ of all fucking things

“That isn’t how it works though Yuri! How was I not sore!? How are YOU not sore ever!? Or tired? Or even in need of a break?”

“I’m a dancer, Vitenka, I’m used to being sore and tired, I exercise alot of muscles all the time, and with how much I work and how often I do shows… sweetheart you’re overthinking this,”

“I’m not though! Just because you have high stamina and you’re used to exercise and exhaustion that doesn’t mean you can just have marathon sex and not get tired!”

“V-Vitya, I think maybe you need to rest a while, maybe take a nap or something? You’re exhausted, you’ve been working all day and-”

“No, Yuri, no, I’m serious, this is…. this is fucking weird! Why are you not concerned about this!?”

_'Because I know exactly what’s going on and I don’t want to own up to it…’_

He continued to force the smile, his expression far more somber than he intended as he stroked his fingers down Viktor’s cheek

“Vitenka, my sweet boy, I think you’re _really_ tired, I think you need to rest, let me get you some Ibuprofen ok? Please?”

Viktor looked like he was getting ready to burst into tears, but he nodded anyway and slowly let go of Yuri’s hand, allowed Yuri to pull his hand away and take a few steps back

“I’ll be back in a minute Vitenka, stay put, if the kettle screams just turn the stove off, ok?”

Viktor nodded solemnly, and Yuri had to push down the massive swing of guilt that followed after it, gently stepping back and fisting his fingers into his long black skirt as he picked it up to avoid it dragging the ground, starting out of the kitchen with purpose

At some point between their second and third round he had gotten a change of clothes from upstairs, skirt included, after discussing another one of Viktor’s _“…Ready For It?”_ fantasies, and he couldn’t help feeling an uneasy sort of drama with him as he walked

Heels clicking against hardwood and heavy skirt bunched up in his hands, he felt like he was making a dramatic exit from a movie or something, and it wasn’t a good feeling to have

Because with dramatic fashion came dramatic events, and the last thing Yuri wanted or needed right now was more of _that_ … 

He remembered when he had talked to Mari about this relationship a few weeks back, when she had warned him not to get too attached

_“I’m just saying Yuri, you’ll love him more than he loves you, not because you’re hard to love, but because that’s how men are, you’re soft, you’re sweet, and this will hurt you in the end, you know you can’t have him, you know you can’t keep him, so why are you still trying?”_

_“I love him,”_

_“That’s the problem, you love him and you can’t have him, not really, not forever, not for long,”_

_“You don’t know that,”_

_“I know that these things never end well for us, that’s why they’re only common on TV shows,”_

_“No it-.. I can do this, I can make it work!”_

_“It only works one of two ways for us Yuri, either it’s gonna be forever, or it’s gonna go down in flames, you really think you can keep this one forever?”_

_“…Yeah, yeah I-… I do,”_

_There was a pause, Mari clearly displeased on the other end of the line_

_“It won’t last Yuri, you’re different, you’re so sensitive…. you’re so…” there was a pause, and Yuri’s jaw tensed, he knew what she wanted to say_

_“Weak”_

_“Different”_

_“Unusual”_

_He had heard it all before…_

_“I’m just saying that typically…. humans only want love when it’s torture, don’t say I didn’t warn you,”_

_“Yeah,” Yuri breathed quietly, swallowing back his tears and frustration as he glanced over his shoulder at Viktor’s sleeping form_

_“I know my own lyrics Mari, thanks,”_

_“Yuri-”_

_“I’ve gotta go,”_

_“Please don’t-…… please… don’t get hurt…”_

_“…I won’t Mari, I promise,”_

But was that true?

Was that really…?

Could he really rely on Viktor to be the exception to the standard rule?

Could he really expect Viktor to go against so much of what was considered the normal way of the world?

Could he really hope for Viktor to surprise him one last time and prove Mari wrong?

He hurried up the stairs, his stomach churning the entire time, feeling the sinking, creeping, feeling that something was about to go horribly, horribly wrong, and rushed to the upstairs bathroom

He had started keeping some medicine in the house after Viktor began staying over, he just hoped that he had the right thing….

Having no experience with it himself it was hard to say, he sort of had to rely on Google and TV to know what to do, which was…. several kinds of bad ideas but….

Hurriedly, he grabbed the bottle of Ibuprofen from the top shelf and then hurried down back down the stairs, trying to ignore the fact that Makkachin and Vicchan had started following him as he ran

He felt panicked

He didn’t know why, but he felt panicked

Something was off

Something was wrong

It was coming over him like a hurricane

He could sense it, there was something off

Hurry… hurry…. _hurry_ ….

Everything felt like it was in slow motion then, as he rounded the corner back down the hallway, back into the kitchen, and came to a sudden stop

“NO!!”

Viktor turned to look at Yuri over his shoulder, a wine bottle in his hands, the cork off, a glass out……

_He knew_

Yuri could tell by the look on his face that he knew

And all of a sudden, Yuri felt his entire world crumble

The bottle of pills hit the floor with a clatter and everything around him seemed to drip into his worldview slowly, like paint down the side of a wall

And then, all he could do was wait on the reaction to hell being broken loose

_Who you are is not what you did_

Viktor shouldn’t have taken advantage

He should have never gone looking for something that he knew wasn’t his place

But everything was fucked up now, everything was….

He couldn’t take it

He couldn’t take the mystery of it any longer

Too much was starting to unravel and he felt that if he didn’t get an answer soon he might die trying to find it

No longer were things just chalked up to a single odd incident here and there, no longer could he brush aside Yura’s accusations as completely off the wall and ridiculous, no longer could he ignore what had been staring him in the face all this time, that he had been choosing to ignore and brush aside

He loved Yuri

He loved Yuri so much that it hurt

…But there was something else going on underneath the surface here

Something was wrong and Viktor couldn’t stand to not know what it was anymore

He remembered that tea that Yuri was supposed to be making, he remembered where he had seen Yuri pull it from over the last several weeks, as he made it fairly often….

It was one of the top cabinets, and Viktor could climb up on one of the kitchen chairs to reach it, sliding the cabinet open easily and finding a small variety of different bottles and boxes, and among them…

There was a wine bottle in the back….

That was a weird place to store it….

Frowning, he tugged it free, staring at the label in confusion

_Mary’s Vineyard_

Huh, he had never heard of that before, and Chris was quite a heavy wine fan, Viktor had seen a pretty wide variety….

Narrowing his eyes, he carefully removed the cork, noting that it was loose, and took a sniff

….

That was when the world seemed to crash down around him

It didn’t smell like wine at all

It smelled more like… _blood_ …..

Swallowing tightly, he hurried to shove the cork back in the bottle and climb down, moving over to the counter and setting it down, staring at the bottle in frustration and confusion, chewing on his lip

…

What the fuck?

What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck what the fuck what the _FUCK_!?

Yuri had…. Yuri had _bottled blood_

What in the name of all hell could he _possibly_ have bottled blood for!?

And in a wine bottle no less….

A wine bottle that still felt oddly chilled….

Weird, he knew that there was no ice box or refrigeration of any kind back there, so how was it still chilled…?

Pursing his lips, he stared at the bottle again and rubbing at his head

Why would Yuri have bottled blood? In a wine bottle, in his kitchen?

All he could keep thinking back to was Hannibal and wondering if maybe, all this time, the thing about Yuri being a serial killer wasn’t as much of a joke as he had thought it was….

He swallowed tightly and gave a shaking breath as he lowered his head

This didn’t make any sense….

It didn’t make any sense….

Or maybe it made perfect sense, and that was far more concerning in the end

Inhaling again, then exhaling, he carefully reached up and uncorked the bottle once again

Maybe… just maybe… he was wrong

Maybe this was really just some kind of weird, expensive, super exclusive celebrity wine….

He went fishing for a glass so that he could give the pungent liquid a try, but didn’t get very far

He managed to get the glass out and raised the bottle up to pour some for himself but-

_“NO!!!”_

Looking up, he pursed his lips, his expression grim as he caught sight of Yuri’s face

So, not wine then

“What’s wrong Yuri?” he asked tensely, his eyes narrowed, making contact with Yuri’s own, not daring to turn away in order to look at the affronting bottle in his hands

“I’m just having some wine, isn’t that what this is?”

“P-Put… put that down…. please Vitya….”

“Why? What is it?” he asked blandly, tilting the bottle from side to side, his eyes flicking down to it briefly before looking back up to Yuri

“Vitya-”

“Because it _smells_ like blood, but why would you have that? Why would you have blood bottled up in your kitchen in a wine bottle?”

“Vitya, please….”

“Please… what? Yuri, tell me what this is,”

Yuri looked as though he was about to burst into tears, and Viktor felt horrible for knowing that he was causing that look on his face, he felt terrible knowing that he couldn’t run to Yuri and comfort him and hold him and make the pain go away

But….

This wasn’t just some sketchy smelling pills or a lack of tiredness after sex, this was serious

This was beyond serious

This was… this was all of those conversations that he had had with Yura and Chris coming back to haunt him, all of the little jokes and white lies and omissions of truth were coming back to bite him, and Viktor needed to know the truth

He couldn’t stay in the dark any longer

“I…. think you already know,” Yuri replied quietly, his head down, his arms crossed over his chest, chewing anxiously on his lip and swaying a little, visibly trembling

Viktor wanted to go to him

But he couldn’t cave now

“Why do you have it?”

Yuri shook his head, mumbling a series of “please"s as he shook and shuddered

Setting the bottle down on the counter, Viktor finally strode over to the musician and gently but firmly tilted Yuri’s head up, his mouth pressed into a thin line, his eyes narrowed, it killed him to be so harsh with Yuri, with someone who he loved so much, but he couldn’t just… bend and let this go either

"Yurochka, I _need_ to know what’s going on, I need you to tell me the truth, you said that you would never hurt me but lying to me is doing exactly that, please….. _please_ zolotse, _my butterfly_ , tell me the truth,”

Yuri sniffed again, tears rolling down his face, and Viktor couldn’t take it any longer, he reached out and wrapped his arms tightly around his lover, rubbing his back and holding him close, wincing at the loud, broken sob that Yuri released the moment Viktor’s arms were around him

“I don’t-… I don’t want you to-… to leave- I-… I-…”

“I told you,” Viktor said quietly, gently cupping Yuri’s face and forcing Yuri to look up at him

“I’m not going anywhere, I’m your ride or die, baby,”

Yuri seemed thoroughly confused by that, as if Viktor was giving him completely new information

“…You found… bottled blood in my kitchen….”

“For all I know it’s just from a butcher,” Viktor replied, forcing a smile

Sure, given Yuri’s reaction, he doubted that, but he also doubted that it was anything as sinister as what Yura kept suggesting

If Yuri was some heartless, dangerous, serial killer, he wouldn’t be broken down like this, especially not right in the beginning, he would have tried to manipulate Viktor- or tried to kill him- right?

No….

No, Yuri wasn’t like that, Viktor knew he wasn’t

“I-It-… I-….. _Vitya_ ….”

Panting softly, breathing heavily, Yuri finally looked up, his face red and streaked with tears and a desperate, pleading look in his eyes

“I need you to trust me….”

“I do trust you Yurka, but I’m not letting this go, I can’t-”

“I know,” Yuri interrupted

“I know but… but I think it’d be easier for me to _show_ you than to _tell_ you…. please?”

Viktor swallowed, but nodded all the same, pulling back and staring down into Yuri’s eyes

He looked so honest

He looked so terrified

He looked so pleading….

How could Viktor ever believe there was anything sinister about him?

“C-Come…. come with me then….” Yuri mumbled quietly, taking Viktor’s hand and starting to lead him back to the storage room where they had been earlier

Viktor was half-tempted to ask if Yuri was going to show him the bodies, but he felt that might be too much for this already fragile situation to hold up under

Instead he merely followed, keeping himself quiet as he allowed Yuri to lead him back to the chair he had been sitting in earlier, watching as the musician grabbed the handcuffs from the table where he had left them and presented them to Viktor

“P-Please…. please trust me…. please let me -…”

“You… want to chain me up?” Viktor asked hesitantly

Yuri looked down, ashamed, clearly not enjoying this the way he had been earlier

Viktor couldn’t blame him

“Please trust me Vitya….”

“But why would you want to handcuff me just to tell me- show me- the truth? Because _you_ don’t trust _me_?”

It looked like that comment hurt

It looked like that comment was killing Yuri inside

But he didn’t deny it

Viktor inhaled tightly, biting his tongue and putting his hands behind the back of the chair, raising his eyebrows at Yuri expectantly

“Well, come on then, get it over with, I usually enjoy you binding me Yuri, but I’m a _little_ too on edge to get a buzz from it now hm?”

Yuri looked… utterly shocked, his mouth opening and his expression depicting utter confusion

“Y-You-…. but-…. you trust me…? After all this…? Are you serious?”

“Yeah, I trust you, now come on, I’m getting impatient here,”

Yuri nodded quickly, his hands shaking as he moved closer and gently started to secure the cuffs over his wrists

The feeling was familiar and calming, it gave a peacefully tinge to the otherwise increasingly anxious razor’s edge that Viktor was currently balancing on

“Yura believes that you’re going to kill me,” Viktor said casually as he felt the cuffs finally lock into place

“I disagree, I’ve told him repeatedly that you would never hurt me,”

Yuri swallowed again, leaning back just far enough for Viktor to look him in the eye

"Don’t prove me wrong, Yurochka,” he ordered carefully, his voice a tight, thin line, demanding and strict, with only the slightest hint of warmth crawling beneath the words

Yuri shook his head, assumingly in agreement, and took a few steps back, his head still down, inhaling a few times, exhaling, back and forth, in and out, before he finally seemed to summon enough courage to look Viktor in the eyes, tears still streaming down his cheeks

“I would never hurt you Vitya,” he promised again, sounding more confident in that than he had in anything else he had said since this conversation started

“I.. I don’t know what to say though… I don’t know how to-…”

“Yuri,” Viktor said suddenly, his voice just as thin and demanding as before

He decided he would have to help Yuri take the leap he needed to take off of this cliff, if Yuri couldn’t jump, Viktor would have to push him

It would break his heart, probably, but Viktor couldn’t stand to see him collapsing in on himself like this, he couldn’t keep watching him rupture under the chaos and melt down and still give Viktor no information to work with, and now with Viktor unable to physically comfort him……

He needed to rip the bandaid off

“Are you a serial killer, Yurochka?”

Yuri tensed, a look of terror falling over him again, the tears seeming to pour faster as his breathing grew harder and heavier, shaking like a leaf

“N-No… no it isn’t like that!! I-.. I’m not-…. I don’t–…..”

“Then what are you?” Viktor asked firmly, leaning back in the chair, projecting the same kind of confidence that he was used to projecting in front of clients and the media and the people who came after Yuri wanting his head on a pike…

“What are you if you aren’t a murderer, Yurka? What are you?”

“I-I… I-I……”

“What. Are you?” Viktor repeated more firmly

“I-I’m… I’m…..a-ah… I-I….”

“Yuri!!” Viktor shouted

And that seemed to be it

That was what broke him

Seemingly against his control, Yuri…. _changed_

His eyes turned blood red, he hissed, and Viktor watched in amazement as a set of sharp fangs grew from his jaws

He was still gasping and sobbing, still panicking, not looking nearly as menacing as someone with _fangs_ probably should, but…

“A monster….” Yuri said quietly, lowering his head again and finally collapsing to the floor on his knees

“I’m a monster, I-…. that’s…. _I’m a **monster** Viktor…_”

Viktor was quiet for a moment, watching as Yuri broke down in front of him and carefully pulling himself forward, pushing his feet against the floor so he could roll the chair as close to Yuri as possible without potentially hitting him

“Hey,” he said softly, gently nudging his foot against Yuri’s shoulder, prompting him to look up at Viktor’s soft, serene face

“I told you to call me Vitya, you don’t get to just _change your mind_ about that,” he smirked sweetly

Ah…

There was that confused look again, as Yuri carefully sat back on his knees and folded his hands in his lap, staring at Viktor as if _he_ were the one who had just grown fangs

“W-What….?”

“Didn’t I ever tell you? Once you start calling me Vitya, you can’t just take that shit back,”

“N-No, no I mean-…. _what??!?_ How are you not-…?!”

“What? Surprised? I am, or… did you mean, how am I not _angry_? That’s what you’re really confused at, isn’t it zolotse? That’s what _this_ -” he paused, rattling the cuffs behind him, “-was all about, wasn’t it? You thought I would hate you, run out on you…. maybe hurt you, is that it?”

“Can you blame me?” Yuri breathed

“I’m a MONSTER Vitya!”

“Stop that, you’re no such thing, you’re just… a little fangier than the rest of us,”

“How can you be making light of this? I’m a fucking vampire!!”

Viktor shrugged, resting his foot gently on Yuri’s thigh, because it was really the most he could do in this position to try to comfort him

“I was still willing to date you back when I thought you were a serial killer, wasn’t I?”

“You were joking about that,” Yuri accused, slowly rising to his feet and rubbing at his eyes, shaking his head and turning to face away from Viktor

“And atleast that’s something you already know exists, I’m a VAMPIRE, a… a mythical creature! I shouldn’t even EXIST according to humans! How are you not freaking out!?”

“Oh I don’t know, I’ve always believed in magic,” Viktor shrugged back, pulling himself forward again

“I’ve always been a believer in the things that we cannot see, I kinda always thought there was more to this world than just what science wants to present us with, I mean, I don’t know how I’d survive if I really thought _this_ was all life had, that’s just fucking depressing, I’d die,”

He moved closer again, and Yuri stepped back, as if Viktor- who was handcuffed to a chair and weaponless- was more dangerous than Yuri- the literal, actual vampire- was

It broke his heart

It broke his heart to have to wonder who had hurt Yuri before- what they may have done- to make Yuri feel so confident that even after all of this, Viktor would- or even _could_ \- hurt him too

“Most people who believe in magic feel that way about…. angels and faeries and…. a-and _good_ things, not… not monsters, Vitya, not… fucking _demons_ and vampires…”

“You’re an angel to me Yurochka,” Viktor said softly, pulling closer again, and this time Yuri seemed to resist the urge to step back- progress, atleast

“You’ll always be an angel to me, no matter what, you’ll always be my good thing, and who said you were a demon? Vampires aren’t inherently evil are they?”

“W-Well no…”

“Then stop worrying about that,”

Sighing quietly, he pulled forward one last time, leaning his head down and resting it against Yuri’s torso, trying to show his partner- his _lover_ \- that there was nothing to be afraid of, that everything was ok…

He just didn’t know if Yuri believed him….

“Vitya…”

“It’s really ok Yuri, I’m not upset with you, I’m not angry, I’m not afraid, and _I am **not** going to hurt you_, please my butterfly…. believe me,”

Yuri couldn’t seem to take it anymore, letting loose another sob as he collapsed down against Viktor, resting his head against the soft silver of his lover’s hair and wrapping his arms around Viktor’s shoulders, holding him closely, holding him tightly

Viktor shut his eyes and gently nuzzled against his beloved, wishing he could hold him back, pulling on the cuffs as if that would somehow break them and he could hug his beloved Yuri and comfort him the way that he needed to

"Yurka, could you uncuff me now please? I’m not going to hurt you, I just want to hug you,”

Yuri pulled back, staring at Viktor with hesitation, which only continued to hurt Viktor’s heart

“Yuri, my beloved, beautiful butterfly…. please, just trust me,”

Finally, shakily, Yuri nodded, carefully passing Viktor and grabbing the key from the table, finally unlocking the cuffs and letting Viktor out of his binds

Viktor didn’t hesitate for even a second, he sprung up- a motion that, upon seeing Yuri startle, was probably not the best idea- and immediately scooped his beloved up into his arms, giving him a tight, squeezing hug, pressing kisses everywhere he could reach and collapsing back into the chair behind him, his heels dug into the floor beneath him to keep them in place as he hugged Yuri tighter, closer, letting him cry, listening to him wail, and feeling himself ache in sympathy for his lover

No wonder Yuri hadn’t told him before

No wonder he had kept this bottled up to himself all this time….

“Yurka…” he sighed quietly, combing his fingers gently through Yuri’s hair and closing his eyes, trying to comfort his lover as best he could

“Yuri…. oh my Yuri…… everything is starting to make sense now,” he noted, a slight, light laugh leaving his throat as the puzzle pieces began tumbling into place

“The faster healing, the stamina, the weird pills, the secrecy…. oh god this all makes so much more sense!” he noted with a slight laugh, gently nudging Yuri’s face away and smiling sweetly at him as he started to clear the tears away from his lover’s face, his expression warm and loving, pressing a few kisses to his face

“And here I had actually begun to believe for a hot second that you were a serial killer! Oh Yurochka-”

“Vitya,” Yuri interrupted quietly, his mood not having lifted since a few moments before, his lips pressed into a thin line as he stared at his boyfriend, his expression grim

“I… need to make one other confession,”

“...O...k…?” Viktor noted slowly, eyebrows raising

“This isn’t the only thing I’m hiding, I… I did something, Vitya…. I did something bad……”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Title Song: Haunted- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W83csQimarI
> 
> Scene Break Titles:
> 
> o. ...Ready For It?- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIft-t-MQuE  
> o.Blank Space- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-ORhEE9VVg  
> o.Innocent- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYN2upg8zX8


	11. I Did Something Bad

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited by Venom <3
> 
> **Trigger warnings for homophobia, hate crimes, and violence related to being attacked by a hate group**
> 
> If any of this bothers you, please skip to the next chapter

_They say I did something bad_

**July 24th, 2014 – Hasetsu Japan**

“Yuri!! That was great!!”

Yuri smiled tiredly as he stepped around the corner, happy to see Phichit’s enthusiasm

“Thanks Peach,”

“Yeah of course! Wow, you just keep getting better and better huh?”

“I guess so,” Yuri shrugged as he took the bottle of water that his friend was handing to him

“You _guess_ so? Yuuuuuriiii you need to do something about that self-esteem of your’s!”

Yuri only shrugged, fidgeting nervously as he took another few sips of water

Phichit only sighed, quiet and light, and gently patted him on the shoulder

“I mean it you know, you’re so great Yuri, you’re _so_ good, you need to believe in yourself more!!”

“I’ll keep that in mind Peach, really though, thank you,”

“Ofcourse,” Phichit beamed, giving Yuri a tight hug and stepping back, a slightly concerned edge to his smile

“Yuri… you doing ok? You seem more… down than usual,”

“I’m just tired, that’s all,”

“Really? I didn’t know vampires could _get_ tired, I thought you were sorta… ya’ know… the undead of unending stamina? Have you been drinking enough blood?”

“Yeah I’m sure it’s fine, I’m alright,”

In all honesty, maybe he _had_ been cutting back a little

He had been eating alot more human food lately, which wasn’t bad for him, but it was what he was turning to instead of actual nutrition, the stress and anxiety having become so much that it was exceedingly difficult for him to convince himself to drink what he should, it didn’t help that he had really been struggling lately with his identity

It felt like the more he pushed himself to be open with his sexuality, the more he pushed himself to bury his species down inside of him

The more he pushed to be out and proud about being bisexual, the more he pushed to cover up his vampirism and limit what he did in relation to it

Maybe it was correlation, maybe it was entirely unrelated, he couldn’t tell, hell maybe it had more to do with rising fame than with being out

Since coming out, he had become even more famous than before- by quite a bit, as a matter of fact- and the more famous he became, the more danger he was putting himself and his family in by simply being what he was, if he didn’t take extra care to cover up his fangy situation….

“You should have another drink,” Phichit said gently, pulling back and carefully tiling Yuri’s face up, trying to get a better glance at his eyes, to see how dark they were

“Yeah… you definitely need more….”

“I’m ok Phich, I think it’s just the suppressants,”

“Shit….. Yuri please tell me you aren’t overdoing it on those things…. you know they could kill you, right?” Phichit asked anxiously

“Yeah, I know,” Yuri sighed softly

“I’m really ok though, I’m only taking two a day like I should, and I’m hydrating, I’ll be fine, this is just alot on me, so…”

“Yuri….” Phichit winced, a cringe on his face as he crossed his arms over his chest

“I’m-… you know what? I’m going to go see Kagami and ask her about something to help take the edge off for you, alright?”

“Peachy you do-”

“I want to,” Phichit said seriously, inhaling deeply and glancing up at the sky, his eyes flashing golden for a moment before smiling back at Yuri

“Besides, I’m due for a run anyway, I’m going to do that, and _meanwhile_ , Haru is here to see you, so you should stick with him for the night, ok? If you feel like it, that is, I mean if you’re really that tired-”

“I’ll go,” Yuri said quickly

“No, you’re right, I should spend some time away from… everything… and just be myself for a while, um, is the rest of the band with him or…?”

“Didn’t see ‘em, but Mari said you could use her car and she’s gonna hitch a ride with Minako, so that’s where I sent Haru to wait,”

Nodding slowly, Yuri thanked his friend again and gave him a tight hug, his expression clearly tired as he forced himself to pull away

“I’ll see you when you get home, ok Phichit?”

“Yep, see you! And Yuri? For the love of god, drink some fucking blood man, you look sick,”

“I will, I will, you have my word,”

A lie

Just another of the many to add to the pile

Waving to Phichit one last time, he easily wove his way out of the backstage area and met up with Haru at the car, waving politely to the other musician and taking the top hat he was wearing off

He kind of wanted to change out of his elaborate circus costume and put on something more comfortable but….

He wanted to get out of here even more

Haru was a good person for him to be around when his anxiety was acting up or when he felt tired, Haru had an anxiety disorder himself but that was exactly why he was good- he knew how to help, and he was a quiet person who didn’t push or pry or make Yuri talk if he didn’t feel like it, he let Yuri have time to decompress if he needed it

And Yuri definitely needed it tonight

He wouldn’t get the quiet privacy and gentle comfort of another person if he stuck around the concert hall any longer, he would have to socialize, keep his metaphorical mask on, and act like a pop star for the next several hours if he got caught by fans or executives or….

Just thinking about it made him want to puke

“Hey Haru, where are the others?” he greeted, setting his hat in the back seat before climbing into the driver’s side

“Rei and Nagisa had a date, Makoto and Rin are working,” the other replied quietly, sliding into the passenger’s side

“Ah, and let me guess, you want to go swimming?”

Haru only nodded, but that was typical for him, he wasn’t a very verbal person and Yuri respected that

“Ok, we’ll track down a pool and go swimming, did you really take the train all the way here from Iwatobi?”

Another nod, Haru handing Yuri the keys that he must have gotten from Mari, and Yuri started the car

“I brought you a bag,” Haru said after a moment

“In case you wanted to swim with me,”

Yuri smiled lightly, taking off from the concert center and inhaling the magnificent warm summer air

“That was really nice of you, thank you,”

Another quiet nod, and for a wile, things remained silent

Yuri enjoyed the fresh air, delighted that Mari had a convertible, and Haru sat beside him overlooking the scenery

It was nice

It was peaceful

After about half an hour, when they started nearing the local pool, Yuri noticed his friend staring- at the costume, he realized belatedly- and glanced briefly away from the road, eyebrows raised in question

“No dress tonight?”

“Oh, um, yes and no? I was wearing them earlier, but … _'Never Ever’_ feels more like a shorts kind of song,”

Haru hummed quietly in contemplation, but he didn’t take his eyes off of Yuri’s clothes

“Do you like them? …The dresses?”

“Oh, yeah! I do! They’re really comfortable and pretty and… make me feel nice…”

He paused, trying to read the situation

It was always a little harder to read with Haru, he was so quiet and kept so much to himself, he was a bit more difficult to deduce than most people Yuri knew, but…

“Do you… ever think about trying them yourself?”

Having gotten his friend’s attention, Haru glanced up and hesitated a moment before finally shaking his head

“No,”

“Ah… ok,”

At first, Yuri thought that would be it, but a moment later-

“Rin might though,”

“Oh, really?” Yuri grinned with surprise

“He likes maid costumes,”

It was a good thing Yuri was particularly good at driving, otherwise that information may have made him swerve

“O-Oh… r-really…?”

Haru nodded, evidently not seeing anything wrong with just… dropping that information in the middle of a conversation

…

Well that made atleast three of his friends that were kinky bastards….

Phichit had recently started exploring and made sure to tell Yuri all of the gory details, now Rin and Haru were apparently into it, and he had a strong feeling, knowing the two of them, that that wasn’t by far all they were into….

But he’d be damned if he asked

“Well I’d offer to let him try one of mine but I don’t think it would fit…”

Haru was more or less exactly Yuri’s size, but Rin was considerably taller- not to mention more muscular

He would have offered for Haru but…

“It’s fine,” Haru replied easily as they pulled into the pool parking lot

“I doubt he’d try it anyway, too proud,”

“Yeah, I get that,” Yuri nodded, parking and turning the engine off

“Haru, where’s the pool ba-Haru?”

Ah…. he had already hopped out of the car….

Sighing quietly, Yuri stepped out as well and grabbed two backpacks out of the back seat, not bothering to put the hood up on the car as he rushed to follow his friend

It would be fine, no one else would be here after hours anyway, it’s not like anything would happen to it

“H-Haru wait, hang on!” Yuri called out, slinging one bag over each shoulder and wincing at the weight

If this was heavy enough to cause him discomfort, then maybe he really _was_ letting himself go too long without a good drink….

He wouldn’t concentrate on that now though, he’d reevaluate after the tour was over

Meeting Haru at the gate, he sighed quietly and moved his hands along the chains keeping the gate shut, putting only a little effort into twisting the lock off and pulling the chains loose

The second the gate was open, Haru was gone, rushing in, throwing his clothes off, and jumping into the water

It must have been as much of a relief to him as a good glass of blood was to Yuri

Yuri couldn’t blame him for being eager

Quietly, he exhaled and walked over to one of the tables by the pool, putting the bags down and slumping against it

God he was tired…..

He was so fucking tired…..

A few seconds passed before he glanced up, startling to see Haru right by the edge of the water, staring holes through him

“U-Um…?”

“You know, you can have a drink if you want,” he noted, his mouth full of little razor sharp teeth as he rose a little higher out of the water, propping his arms on the edge of the pool and tilting his head to expose his neck

The offer was tempting- _really_ tempting- but…

“N-No… thank you but.. I-I’m fine, really, I’m trying to stick to the vitamin capsules and bottled blood when I can have it but… not the real thing… it’s like dieting, it’s hell at first but you get used to it,”

Haru seemed highly skeptical of that, but he didn’t argue

“Just don’t starve yourself, ok?”

“I won’t, I promise,” Yuri smiled back sweetly, pushing back from the table and sighing a little

The heat was overwhelming….

He didn’t really want to go swimming, he didn’t have the energy, but the jacket was making him hot…

Maybe he could take it off…

He didn’t really want to be shirtless but maybe….

Wordlessly, he grabbed the first backpack and started sifting through it, assuming that if Haru had brought him a swimsuit he may have also brought a change of clothes

The first one seemed to be Haru’s own bag though, so…

“What’s it like? Being out?”

Turning away from his current mission, he smiled gently at his friend, catching Haru’s eyes for a moment before the other pushed away from the edge and went back to swimming

“It’s…. well I’m not going to say that it isn’t without it’s troubles, but I prefer it,” Yuri replied, knowing that Haru could hear him, even underwater

“I’m glad I came out, even with all of the struggles associated with it, all of the negative press and… countries banning me from being there, the haters and the frustrations….. it’s still worth it though, I’m getting to be myself, I don’t have to hide anymore, and I can inspire other people who are queer to do the same, which is the best part, it’s…. definitely not always easy but it’s worth it, and at the end when it comes to the hate… all you can do is just shake it off, in fact I’m writing a song with that title about exactly that,”

Haru’s head bobbed up a few minutes later and he nodded, eyes downcast

Yuri, who had just started to open the second bag, gave a small, if a bit weak, smile and stood up, his heels clicking against the cement of the pool as he crouched down nearer to Haru’s level

“Are you thinking of coming out?”

He wanted to sit… hell he wanted to lay down against the likely cool cement and relax but…

He knew that would require getting out of his clothes first, so he wouldn’t ruin them, and honestly, who had the energy?

“I….. maybe….. we all are, maybe,”

Yuri’s smile bloomed bigger, more genuine, as he stood up and leaned against the rail for the pool steps

“Well if you ever need anything, even if it’s just to talk to someone who’s been there, you know you’re more than encouraged to come to me, right?”

“I know,”

“Ok, just… as long as you do,”

Haru nodded, diving down again, his tail splashing at the surface briefly before he swam up closer to the steps

“Thanks, Yuri,”

“Ofcourse! Don’t mention it, really, it’s-”

“Well well well, look what we’ve got here,”

Yuri’s blood ran cold, swallowing anxiously as he slowly turned to stare at the men approaching them

There were four of them, all young, around Yuri’s age, and they looked…. brutal….

One of them was holding a bat, another one had a knife, one was smoking a cigarette….

They were clearly troublemakers, as if that weren’t obvious by the bat and the blade, they were giving off a pretty clearly confrontational front

“Yuri Katsuki, out mingling with the normal folks, what’s'amatter? Get tired of fuckin’ around in the states?” the one with the bat asked, taking a step closer

Yuri swallowed, his body trembling as he stepped back

Shit… shit shit shit shit…… how had he not heard them?

Was he really that weak that he couldn’t even hear them coming…?

“Oh he must’ve come back for his _boyfriend_ ,” cackled the one with the knife, an absolutely menacing look in his eyes

“Is that it, _yarichin_?” snickered the first, taking another few steps closer

And for each step he took, Yuri took one as well, walking backwards, trying to avoid them

“Please, just leave-”

“Oh? You want us to leave _dekisokonai_? Fuck off back to the west then, take your little boyfriend with you!” he shouted, swinging the bat towards Yuri

Yuri tried to dodge out of the way, but the wet concrete and his high heels and his _exhaustion_ ….

He slipped, letting out a cry of pain as he fell backwards, his back and head smacking against the concrete as the man with the bat stepped over him and pointed the weapon at his face

“HA! _Houkei_ , fucking useless! Guess I can’t expect anything better out of fucking _okama_ -, what do you expect going around and dicking up men? Or… are _you_ the one getting dicked up, huh?”

Yuri’s breathing had escalated into hyperventilation, his body shaking as he stared up at the bat

“ANSWER!” the man above him screamed, raising the bat, prompting Yuri to quickly cover his arms over his head, trying to shield himself as the bat came down against his ribs, pulling a scream of pain from him

“Filthy slut…” he sneered, raising the bat again

Yuri couldn’t just keep laying on the ground though, he knew he had to get up, he had to do something, he had to protect himself and his friend…

So, as quickly as he could, tapping the best he could into his extra senses, he kicked his foot outwards and shoved his heel into the stranger’s ankle, effectively and easily knocking him backwards

There were a few random screams of _“Boss!”_ and _“Boss, you ok!?”_ but Yuri wasn’t focusing on them, instead he hurried to scramble onto his hands and knees and push himself, but before he could get up, the bat came over his back, knocking him back down

“Where do you think you’re going!? _Okama_!!” screamed one of the other men as the bat was swung down on him a third time, over his head this time

He could vaguely tell that the leader was being helped up from the ground by the other two, but the one who was attacking him now had evidently snatched the bat and gone straight in for the abuse

Before Yuri could try to defend himself a second time, the others had come to him

First the leader was back, kicking him in the face as the bat cracked down over his side, another of the men had taken to kicking him in the stomach, and he wondered briefly, weakly, where the one with the knife was, what he was going to do, what… when…. _where_ -…

“HEY!!”

Everything stopped suddenly, the pain, the beating, everything….

“You say something _houkei_?” growled the leader of the troop

“Leave him alone,”

Yuri panted quietly, lifting his head up and staring blurrily through his cracked and broken glasses, trying to see past the group

Had Haru gotten out of the water?

But… he couldn’t do that, right?

He couldn’t get out of the water yet because… because they’d see his tail…. and he couldn’t shift back into legs until he was on land so-..?

He heard a splash, and then… then the screaming started

“What the fuck!?”

“What is that!?”

“What the fuck is that!?”

“Fucking monster… kill it!! KILL IT!!!”

No… no no no no….

This was always what Yuri had been warned about

Humans couldn’t be trusted with the supernatural, because past all logic and reasoning, they always sought to kill it

Humans were the natural predators of everything that _wasn’t_ human, and even humans themselves at times….

Humans were the reason that he and others like him always had to live in secrecy

These moments were, throughout history, what had always lead to the witch trials and the mass murders and the slaughtering of his kind

These were the moments that put his people near the edge of extinction

Yuri knew how this was going to go down

He knew what would happen next

So he pushed himself up, shaking from head to toe, everything seeming to go in slow motion as he climbed to his feet and watched the gang charge towards Haru, who had, indeed, pulled himself out of the water, trying to get the attention on himself to keep them away from Yuri

But Yuri wasn’t having it

He wasn’t going to let them hurt his friend

He wasn’t going to let them hurt his friend….

Gritting his teeth, he felt his fangs begin to poke out weakly, his eyes sinking red as he grabbed the nearest human and sunk his teeth into the bastard’s neck

The moment the warm, sweet, tangy blood hit his mouth, everything was something of a blur

It was like having his first bite of food after starving himself for days, and in a way, that was exactly what it was

Bottled blood was a good substitute, the only real difference between having it in a bottle and getting it straight from the source was just the freshness, meaning it wouldn’t taste as good or hold quite as many nutrients as tapping a vein would, but Yuri hadn’t had bottled blood in days either, instead, he had been trying to survive on blood capsules, which only functioned as well for vampires as multivitamins did for humans

It was a stupid attempt, he knew, but it wasn’t impossible to live that way, and he thought it would be safer for himself and his family if he wasn’t drinking blood at all…. 

The problem with that, ofcourse, was that when he finally got blood again, he would react to it exactly the same way as a starving man would react to food

Possibly worse

He didn’t black out, not quite, not really

He could remember flashes, he could remember visions, he could remember the warmth, the sensation, the _taste_ , oh god the _taste_ …..

But for the most part, he remembered very little until it was over

Until it was over and he was left standing over four mangled bodies, covered in blood

Satisfied, feeling stronger and better than ever, but…. _horrified_ ….

Seeing the massacre below him, feeling the sticky blood on his skin, brought a wail from his throat as he collapsed to his knees and sobbed

His glasses had gotten lost somewhere in the wreckage, and everywhere he looked, everything he saw, was just… _red_

Everything was _red_

Oh fuck oh _fuck_ it was all _red_

He cried out louder and louder, wrapping his arms around his torso and doubling over, panting and screaming as the horrors of what had happened began to sink in, rocking back and forth, trying to soothe himself, trying to shake the horrors out of his head

“Yuri,” Haru said quietly

But he didn’t even hear him

“YURI!!”

He couldn’t look up, he couldn’t be bothered, he couldn’t manage it

Everything was just too… too much…. _so_ much….

Haru, who had since managed to shift back into his bipedal form, quickly knelt down beside his friend and wrapped his arms around him

Yuri knew that Haru wasn’t typically much of a hugger, but Yuri himself couldn’t quite process the need to be more careful at that moment, he simply slung himself across his friend’s shoulders, hugged him as tightly as possible, his nails scratching at Haru’s back, his voice growing weak and hoarse, all of the singing from earlier that night now coupled with the screaming from this incident…

He just … he couldn’t stop screaming….

He couldn’t stop…

Sobbing louder and louder, he clung desperately to his friend as Haru tried to soothe him, rubbing his back and shushing him, murmuring soft things to him, trying to comfort him

It wasn’t doing much good

“I-I… I can’-…. what… what are w-…. what are … are we go-… gonna do!?” Yuri screamed

“W-What… we ca- … we can’t-….”

“Listen to me, listen to me Yuri,” Haru demanded firmly, taking Yuri’s face in his hands and holding it roughly, staring into his eyes

“We’ll call a cleaner,”

“B-Bu-”

“We’ll call a cleaner, it’ll be fine, it’ll be ok, no one will know,”

Yuri shook his head quickly, breaking down in tears again and resting his head against Haru’s shoulder, screaming and screaming and _screaming_

“Yuri…. Yuri…. you have to calm down, you _need_ to calm down,”

Yuri shook his head, gasping and panting, drinking down breath after breath, there wasn’t enough air… he couldn’t get enough air in his lungs no matter how hard he tried…

“Yuri please…”

He whimpered, shaking like a leaf as he clung to his friend

The good thing- possibly the only good thing- was that they were in the middle of nowhere

The pool was located in a small, off-road type of space, it was unlikely anyone would hear Yuri, no matter how loudly he screamed

“Yuri it’s going to be ok, it’s going to be ok,” Haru repeated, taking Yuri’s face in his hands again and trying to help him clear away his tears

Yuri panted and heaved, shaking his head and rubbing miserably at his eyes

“N-No… no no no no no it- it… it can’t- … it won’-”

“It will be _fine_ -”

“HOW!? I-I did.. I did… I _KILL-_ -”

“I know, I know…. but you didn’t have a choice, you had to Yuri, you _had_ to,”

“N-No… no no … no-”

“Yes you did,” Haru demanded firmly

“Yuri, yes you did, you _had_ to, you had no choice, they were going to kill us, do you understand? _They were going to **kill us**_ , you had no choice Yuri,”

“I-I… I coul- I could have- I coul-….- I co-”

“No, no you couldn’t, there is nothing you could have done, do you understand? If you had let them get away they would have just caused more trouble, they would have told people, you were too weak to hypnotize them, they would have gotten more people and come back and _killed us-_ …. You. Did. Not. Have. A. Choice. Do you understand?”

Yuri was still whimpering and groaning, still twitching and shaking and grabbing at Haru, trying to bury himself in his friend’s hold, to get away from the horrors around him…

Haru pulled back, snapping his fingers firmly in front of Yuri’s face

“Do. You. Understand?”

Yuri sucked in a breath, panting a little but ultimately giving a slow, solemn nod

“Y-Yes…… y-yes… yes I- .. I und-under-understand…..”

Exhaling in relief, Haru nodded, stroking his fingers against Yuri’s cheeks

“Ok… ok, good…. now we’re going to stand up, you’ve got to do everything I say, can you do that?”

Yuri nodded again, shaky, and watched Haru stand up, only breaking down into another sob when he was presented with the sight of the bodies all over again

Haru, to his credit, was never good with people

He never had been, and he was having a harder time knowing what to do to console Yuri than he was figuring out how to get rid of the bodies…

“Come on Yuri, come on,” he said gently, reaching down and taking Yuri by the hands, helping him to his feet despite the way his legs were shaking, and gently pulled aside one of the chairs at the table in front of them, turning it away from the bodies and gently pushing Yuri to sit down

“I’m going to call a cleaner,” he said slowly, crouching down in front of the vampire and placing his hands on the arms of the chair, keeping himself the center of Yuri’s vision

“I need you to change clothes, I won’t look, can you do that?”

Shakily, Yuri gasped and coughed, nodding slowly as Haru stood up and started moving away

Yuri began to turn his head, but just as he did, Haru stopped, turning to look down at him

“Don’t look, just stare at the water,”

Obediently, Yuri nodded again, taking a few more breaths, trying to calm himself, trying to steady himself however he could

“H-How are… you s-so go-good at…. good at this…?” he mumbled, sniffling a few times

Haru only shrugged, moving back towards the table and grabbing their backpacks

“I’ve got a little experience,”

“W-What? Experience wi- .. with _killing people_!?”

“Yeah… some, it was … just a couple of times, emergencies, like this…. the others don’t know, don’t tell them,”

Yuri nodded again, gulping down a few more breaths and watching as a backpack was plopped at his feet

“What- …. what got you … through it? H-How’d you… what happened…?”

“Knowing I didn’t have a choice, I didn’t _always_ have my band to help me stay afloat, and I’m an orphan, remember? Draw your own conclusions,”

_Oh_

Yuri didn’t have to think too hard to imagine a few scenarios

Being an orphan sucked, but it was particularly life or death in their world

Sighing shakily, he slowly started to pull at his jacket to get it off, only to pause when he felt how sticky it was

Pulling his hands away, he saw drops of blood sliding down his skin, fresh, not the drying stains that were already on his hands…

“M-My…. my jacket….” he mumbled, bursting into a fresh bout of tears

“My jacket… my jacket… my jacket…” he cried, practically chanting a mantra as he hugged himself and pulled his hands off of the red rhinestones that decorated him

Some of them were loose…. he had stains all over him….

“You’ll get a new one,” Haru said quietly, stepping back to Yuri and taking his hands carefully away from the jacket that he was tugging on, trying to help calm him

“N-No… no it’s my ja-.. my special jac-… my- my jacket- it-…”

“They’ll get you a new one, you’ll get a new one, it’ll be the same thing ok? It’ll be just like this one, but you need to take this off, you need to get undressed,”

Yuri shook his head, panting and gasping, but he slowly pulled his hands away to start pulling the jacket off anyway

It took an embarrassing amount of time, everytime he was reminded of the blood staining him he broke down all over again, Haru ultimately ended up having to help him get undressed, eyes closed the entire time, helping him out of his bloody costume and shoes, and guiding him to sit down again, pulling a cute, sparkly dress out of his bag and handing it to Yuri, causing the musician to smile weakly in gratitude as he accepted it

“The cleaners are on their way,” he noted a moment later as Yuri finally got his dress on and zipped up

“What.. what do we do in the mean time?” Yuri asked quietly

“Leave, we should get out of here, don’t worry, they’ll handle the rest,” Haru assured him, having already taken Yuri’s bloody clothes and shoes and put them in the bag

Yuri nodded slowly in agreement, sighing tiredly and feeling his shoulders sag, watching as Haru- who, at some point that he hadn’t noticed- had gotten dressed himself as well- dug through the backpack again and pulled out an extra pair of shoes and a glasses case

“Here, put these on,”

Yuri nodded again, starting with the shoes as Haru opened the case and took out a spare pair of glasses, identical to the ones that Yuri usually wore

“You-…. why did you bring spare glasses?” he asked quietly, staring up at his friend in surprise

“You’re always damaging them, we can’t have you going around without them or your image will be hurt, right?” he replied, carefully sliding the glasses over Yuri’s face

Turning a bit pink, Yuri nodded slowly and tilted the glasses down so that he could see better

The prescription in them was… _strong_ …

It was perfect for when his suppressants were functioning and his eyesight was poor as a result, but in cases like this when he had just overfed on blood and more or less flushed out the effects of the suppressants, the prescription just became a pain….

“Let’s go,”

Yuri nodded shyly as he pushed himself up and gently took Haru’s hand, allowing the other to lead him out of the pool area

“For the record…. I’m sorry that I didn’t intervene sooner, I never should have let them hurt you,”

“O-Oh it’s ok-”

“No, it isn’t,” Haru replied firmly, his expression stern as he lead Yuri back out to the car

“I should have jumped in sooner, I never should have let them-”

“You were protecting yourself-”

“And I should have been protecting you,”

Yuri frowned, his heart heavy as he leaned against his friend, letting Haru hand him the keys and climb into the passenger’s side

“It’s neither of our fault,” he lied quietly as he headed to the other side of the car

“The only ones at fault are the assholes who attacked us,”

He didn’t actually believe that though, that was the problem

He still blamed himself, he still thought he had overreacted, he was still _sure_ that this was all on him…

But he wasn’t going to actually say it out loud

“You should stay with me tonight,” Haru noted, out of the blue, as Yuri started the car

“W-What…?”

“You don’t need to be driving any more than absolutely necessary in this state, and you shouldn’t be alone right now either,”

“Oh… that’s ok, I’ll have my family.. and Phich… they’ll understand if I tell them what happened…”

“Ok, then _I_ shouldn’t be alone right now and I can’t talk to my band about it,”

Yuri swallowed tightly, giving a timid nod

He knew that Haru was only saying this- doing this- because he was worried about him

He appreciated the sentiment

“Ok,” he mumbled quietly

“I’ll call Phichit when we stop,”

He started to pull out of the parking lot, trying not to focus on how sick he felt, or how much he wanted to just… completely blot out the fact that this day even existed….

But he didn’t get very far

Not long after he had started down the empty road ahead of them, he suddenly felt something sharp press against the side of his neck

His higher senses all kicked in at once all of a sudden, the numbing from his stress and anxiety was gone now and he was suddenly painfully aware of the scent of another person, of the sound of another heartbeat, of the sensation of breath down the back of his neck

“Stop the car and take the keys out of the ignition,” a stranger’s voice demanded

“Take them out slowly, and nobody gets hu-”

Before the guy could even finish his sentence, Haru had lunged forward, grabbing him by the wrist and jerking him away

Yuri wasn’t sure if he intended to take the guy out himself, or if he was just trying to get him off of Yuri, but it didn’t really matter in the end, the vampire was far too shaken and on edge to let something like that go, and when he spun around to glare at the human, his eyes were red all over again

There was no hesitation in him, he went straight for the jugular

The car was still moving, he was vaguely aware of Haru lunging for the steering wheel before they crashed, but that was where things went dark

–---

“Are you done throwing up yet?”

“I didn’t throw up…” Yuri sighed miserably, trekking out of the woods unsteadily and willing himself not to gag when he saw the body in front of them

“I controlled it, if I threw up that would leave evidence, right?” he asked tiredly, rubbing his arms despite the warmth of the summer air

“That’s what the cleaners are for, Yuri,” Haru replied quietly

Yuri only nodded tiredly and stepped closer, resting his forehead against Haru’s shoulder

“I feel sick… I feel so sick….”

“I know,” Haru said quietly, his eyes flickering upwards as he turned to hand Yuri his phone

“Text Phichit, tell him you’re staying with me, I already called the cleaners back and I called Makoto too, we’re going to go to the convenience store a few miles away and wait on him there ok? And we’re not going to tell him about this,”

“I know,” Yuri said quietly, his eyes flickering over to the wrecked car that he had accidentally driven into a street lamp and feeling a wave of tears come on, but he didn’t even have the energy to cry anymore

“Mari’s car…”

“You’ll get her a new one,”

“Our bags…”

“We don’t need them,”

Yuri sniffed, looking down at his ruined dress and squeezing his eyes shut

“My… my dress….”

“I’ll get you a better one,”

He didn’t even notice Haru taking his jacket off until he already had it around his shoulders, the merman helping to pull Yuri’s arms through it and zip it up for him

“But you… you were nice enough to get this for me… I can’t-”

“It’s fine,” Haru interrupted, taking a step back and giving Yuri a once over

“Luckily that will cover the bloodstains….”

Yuri only sighed quietly, rubbing at his face miserably once again

He had managed to go wash the blood off of his face and hands in a stream a few yards into the woods, but it still felt like he was dirty, somehow

He could still feel the blood sticking to him….

“Hey,” Haru said quietly, gently cupping Yuri’s face, forcing him to look up at his friend

“It’s going to be alright,” he promised, taking Yuri’s hand and starting to guide him away from the car

“It’s going to be alright…. I promise,”

Yuri wished he could believe him

But right then, at that moment, he didn’t think he was capable of believing in anything anymore

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Title Song: I Did Something Bad- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnjSmqU_OmQ
> 
> Scene break titles:
> 
> o.I Did Something Bad- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lnjSmqU_OmQ


	12. Don't Blame Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited by Venom <3

_Are we out of the woods yet?_

“Haru had made sure the body was pretty far away from the car, which ended up being a huge blessing, they found the body before the cleaners got done with the pool so…”

Taking a breath, long and slow, Yuri rubbed his face and tilted his head back

“It took me a month… of emotionally repairing myself enough to go back to… anything…. to wear that costume again, after a new one was made, to sing… to…. do anything, I maybe should have recovered longer but I needed to get back on tour as quickly as possible, besides, coming back to the states was good for me, being away from where it all happened…. I stopped starving myself too, I have a rule now, I have to have atleast eight ounces of blood- real blood, not just those vitamins- every day, that’s.. why I brought that bottle of it with us when we went to Disneyland… I think maybe I could have controlled myself better if I was functioning properly, if I wasn’t so low on nutrition I _atleast_ would have been able to sense our attackers before it was too late and maybe could have done a better job at handling them… I also hunt now, not… all the time but … something awoke in me that night, something that took months for me to understand, for my own safety and that of those around me, I can’t let myself be … domesticated…. that’s the problem with my world these days, we try so hard to blend in with humans that sometimes we go too far and are left defenseless, it’s like breeding down wolves into Chihuahuas, sure… the Chihuahua is cute, but it doesn’t make for a very good guard dog…. I have to be able to take care of myself, in the future, if that happens again, I might not have anyone there to help me, I might have to be the one taking care of someone else instead, and I can’t let myself be incapable of doing what I need to do so…. so when I have a little free time I’ll go looking for… bad people, attackers, hunters, rapists, abusers…. I told you that I prefer the term ‘vigilante’ to 'serial killer’,”

Viktor didn’t know quite what to make of all of this information

He had so many questions and he wanted to know so much more….

But he needed to pace himself, and he needed to make sure that Yuri’s well being was his priority amongst everything else

He looked like even telling the story was the most exhausting thing he had been through in months, and he had cried on and off through the entire thing

Viktor knew he wasn’t nearly as ok with any of it as he was pretending to be

So he did the only thing he knew how to do- he leaned forward and gave Yuri the tightest hug that he could manage

He hugged him and he forced himself not to start crying as well, because that wouldn’t help anyone, really

“Oh Yuri…” he breathed quietly

“Oh Yuri….. I… I’m so sorry you went through any of that… I am so extremely sorry….”

“Don’t be Vitya, it’s ok-”

“It isn’t ok!! It’s terrible!! It’s terrible that you would ever have to experience any of that!!”

Yuri was quiet for a moment, before his expression slowly turned to one of slight amusement

“So… you’re telling me that you just heard this long, drawn out story about how I murdered a bunch of people… and you feel sorry for me?”

“Well duh!! You were the victim in that entire thing!! My sweet Yuri…. my god…. I’m just so sorry…..”

“Vitya, you are the last person on this planet who should have to apologize to me for _anything_ , ok? You’ve never done anything except be supportive and loving and beautiful and amazing…. how are you still with me? How is NONE of this bothering you?”

Viktor only forced a chuckle as he took Yuri’s hands and gave them both a squeeze

“I keep telling you Yuri- I’m your ride or die, baby,”

Yuri’s expression twitched up into a soft smile, leaning forward and giving Viktor a slow, gentle kiss, stroking his fingers lovingly through Viktor’s hair, breathing in his scent, simply melting into him

“You’re…. you’re magnificent,” Yuri said with a soft, humorless laugh, inhaling, then sighing on the exhale, bringing himself closer and resting his head against Viktor’s shoulder

Viktor only hugged him in response, gently rubbing his back and pressing a few kisses against the side of his face

“Not really, I just love you, I love you, Yuri, more than anyone or anything, that’s all,”

“Oh, is that all?” Yuri teased playfully, leaning back and sighing quietly as he rubbed the exhaustion from his eyes

“You must have….. the most insane amount of questions…”

“They can wait, Yuri, if you need to sleep-”

“No no, it-… I’m ok, I promise, but I’ve kept you waiting long enough and I’m getting this all off of my chest so… so I feel like… like I’m cleansing myself, I want to get clean of all of this Vitya, so please… just rip the bandaids off now,”

Viktor nodded slowly, carefully considering his first question

There were so many, but….

“Can you turn people into vampires too?”

“That’s your first question out of all of this?” Yuri asked in total shock, but he exhaled quietly and smiled fondly at Viktor, giving a small nod

“Yes, but it’s not something to be taken lightly, and because I _know_ your second question is about me turning you…. I’ve been considering it for some time, but I want you to spend a few months getting a more intimate look at how I actually live before you make that decision, ok Vitenka? This is one thing that, once done, can never be undone, do you understand?”

“Got it,” Viktor promised with a nod, pretty satisfied with the answer

“Were you turned? Or were you born this way?”

“In the immortal words of Lady Gaga, baby I was born this way,”

Viktor gave a quiet laugh, grinning from ear to ear

“How does that… ya’ know… _work_ though? Aren’t vampires supposed to be undead?”

“A misconception, because our blood has such magnificent healing properties and can bring someone back from the brink of death, people started to say that we were 'undead’ and voila- a rumor has begun, one of a billion,”

“I see…. what else about vampires are just misconceptions?”

Yuri raised an eyebrow, questioning if Viktor _really_ wanted to go down this road or not

“… Too many to count?”

“A little bit,”

“Fair enough, ok… can you do any freaky deaky stuff like turn invisible or pop a knot and make men pregnant or…?”

“What!? No!! Vitya what kind of bullshit are you reading…?”

“Hey, don’t kinkshame me Yuri, I am how I am,”

Yuri rolled his eyes playfully and shook his head, a smirk resting against his lips

“Fair enough, but no, honey, no invisibility, and no knots, I’m a vampire, I’m not a werewolf,”

“Oh… hey hang on-!”

“I can hypnotize people though, we call it 'compulsion’,”

“That’s cool but what’s that about werewolves!?”

Yuri just shrugged, noting quietly to himself that Viktor hadn't realized exactly how he worded his correct, and leaning back in his seat, looking far too casual for anyone who had really just let that slip

“……You’re fucking with me, aren’t you?”

“Can’t say, that’s Phichit’s decision to tell you or not,”

“Phichit?” Viktor asked in surprise

“Phichit’s a werewolf?”

“Yeah,” Yuri shrugged back

“Oh, I… thought werewolves lived in packs or something… or is that more like … hocus pocus nonsense shit?”

“No it’s very true, but I’m the only pack he has left,”

Ahh… Viktor wanted to ask about that, but he felt like it would be far too sensitive and probably not Yuri’s place to tell, hell he wanted to ask so many questions… yet he knew that he couldn’t possibly ask everything he wanted to know at once, or Yuri would lose his mind…

“That’s why he lives with you, right? Why he’s your assistant and around all the time?”

“Partly, but only partly, I think even without that pack instinct he would still be pretty attached to my hip, after all, I’m with _him_ all the time, and vampires don’t have pack instincts, we’re just really, really close and we’re both very clingy, that’s all,”

“Nothing wrong with that,” Viktor smiled brightly

“So vampires don’t have packs, then are you solitary creatures?”

“Sometimes, it just sort of depends on your personality, we’re like humans that way, I personally always preferred living in a nest, with my family, but … it wasn’t that hard to separate when I needed to move here, so,”

Another shrug, but Viktor had a feeling it might just be harder on him than he was directly letting on

“You said earlier something about vampires having good healing abilities, so, ok, that explains your tattoo healing early, but … how did you keep the ink at all then? Don’t… you know… Teen Wolf rules sort of apply?”

“They do as a matter of fact, Phichit uses a special ink for me that’s laced with vervain, it’s … sort of to us what wolfsbane is to werewolves, highly dangerous but in microscopic doses it can be ok for things like tattooing or even used in kink if you’re into pain, it won’t leave lasting damage if the doses are small enough,”

“Wah… so you just put POISON in your body for the sake of a tattoo!? That’s fucked up Yuri!!”

“Calm down, it’s not that different from humans tossing back a couple of Red Bulls,”

….

Viktor really wasn’t sure how to feel about that….

“What about your eyesight? If your healing is so good then shouldn’t you have perfect vision?”

“Well I _would_ if I wasn’t taking suppressants,”

“Right… and the deal with that is what again?”

“They’re pills that I take every day to dampen my powers so that I’m more human, they’re actually the little black ones you found when we went to Disneyland, they really suck but I have to have them to be a musician,”

“Why? They sound dangerous,” Viktor frowned seriously

So far he was starting to learn that Yuri was alot more reckless with his health than Viktor ever believed before and honestly it wasn’t exactly thrilling him

“They can be, about as much as any medication, but I need them, vampires naturally have heightened senses, we can hear a heartbeat from across the room even on a bad day, could you imagine being in a concert stadium screaming into a microphone and surrounded by amps and screaming fans? I’d blow my ears out, the same goes for the rest of my senses, ultimately I have to tone them down to exist as a musician, we also are allergic to sunlight and these pretty much remove that allergy, there _is_ a different pill I could take for that that doesn’t have any side-effects but it isn’t nearly as effective and I would still have to deal with migraines and possibly some minor sunburns if I was in the sun for too long, the pills also help me keep my fangs from popping out at inconvenient moments or reacting poorly to blood, if I should happen to catch the scent, sort of like an appetite suppressant,”

“That sounds _really_ dangerous,” Viktor frowned disapprovingly

Yuri only shrugged, seemingly unconcerned

“We do it all the time-”

“Yeah well people smoke all the time too but nicotine is still a no-no!!”

Yuri’s lips curved up into a soft smile, leaning forward to give Viktor another affectionate kiss

“I appreciate the concern Vitya, but I promise, everything is fine,”

“Is there anything I can do to help though? To lessen the side-effects? To make them safer for you?” he asked sadly

“Not really… they work they way they work, though if I drink blood straight from the vein it does dampen the quality of the suppressants, but that seems counterproductive,”

“Perhaps then, there’s a balance?” Viktor proposed

“Maybe you can find a certain amount to drink that won’t hamper them too much but will allow you to feel less icky and have some of your power back? And after the day is over or on days when you don’t have to perform you can drink a little more so that you can feel even better,”

“And let me guess, you’re volunteering as the blood bag?”

Viktor gave him a thumb’s up, much to his amusement, and Yuri shook his head, still looking extremely fond, however

“How did I ever get lucky enough to have you in my life?”

“Oh I don’t know, karmic justice?” Viktor teased with a wink

“I must have been a saint in a past life,” Yuri smirked back just as playfully

“You probably were, I mean you’re basically one in this life too,”

Yuri rolled his eyes, shoving Viktor’s shoulder playfully

“Oh hey wait! When I become a vampire-”

“ _If_ ,”

“ _When_ I become a vampire, my tattoo won’t vanish will it? I mean Phichit didn’t use that vervain shit did he?”

“No and no, vampirism rarely heals pre-existing conditions of that scale, I mean you could _technically_ trigger it to heal over with new skin if you hurt yourself in that same spot, like… burned your back or something, bu-”

“Ok, good, I don’t want my lovely tattoo going anywhere,” he promised, taking Yuri’s hand and kissing his fingers lovingly

“Ah, that reminds me though, you have Tylenol and bandaids… why do you have that stuff if you don’t need it?”

He would have thought about Phichit at first but even if werewolf healing _didn’t_ work the same way vampire healing worked, he still didn’t know why Yuri would have been carrying bandaids on him before when Phichit wasn’t even around…

“Well when I started keeping a human around I had to learn how to take care of it now didn’t I?” Yuri winked playfully

So… those were for him then?

Yuri had started carrying bandaids around just for him?

And the medicine too….

“Yuuuuriii!!!!” Viktor cried, giving Yuri a tight hug and earning a soft giggle in response from him

“I love you my butterfly, you’re so magnificent, oh my god, I can’t believe I ever worried that you were a serial killer!!”

“V-Vitya… I _am_ …”

“Only a little bit though, it’s for a good cause, shush, it’s not a big a deal,”

“Not a big deal? You almost cried when I stole your fortune cookie last weekend but MURDER isn’t a big deal?”

“You have good reasons!!”

Pulling back, Yuri gently cupped his lover’s face, shaking his head with concern

“You’re lucky I found you before a cult did Vitya,”

“Oh please, unless this cult had the voice of an angel and the face of living artwork, I wouldn’t be too worried,”

Yuri started laughing at that, loud and joy filled, and ahh…. it was _so_ good to hear

Viktor hadn’t realized how much he had missed that sound in the last couple of hours, but he really had….

He never wanted to go so long without hearing it ever again

“You’re ridiculous, do you know that?”

“No, I’m just honest,” Viktor insisted with a wink, taking Yuri’s hand and kissing his fingers once again

“But ah… Yuri… are you really ok with all of the teasing and kinky stuff and… you know… things we do with the murder motif? That doesn’t trigger you does it?”

“No, I’ve learned to separate it from those bad memories, just like I separate my circus costume and my Red tour and I’ve even started to separate driving from it,”

“Oh! Is that why you don’t drive much?”

“One reason yes, I was never a _huge_ fan of it, but I mostly don’t these days because of that incident, it’s still one of my more vivid memories from that entire night and it can be uncomfortable…. but… it feels nice when it’s in your car, it’s not the same, it…. I don’t know how to describe it, it’s just different, it’s a good different,”

“Well that’s good to hear, I’d like to take credit for helping but I don’t think I had anything to do with this one,”

“Don’t be so sure,” Yuri smiled back affectionately, laying down more comfortably on the couch as Viktor crawled up to lay next to him, wrapping their arms around eachother securely

“I think you’ve done alot more for me than you realize Vitya….. _alot_ more….”

Viktor smiled sweetly, his eyes warm and gentle as he leaned closer and gave Yuri a long, slow kiss

“Mmm… what about that tea you keep giving me?”

“Hm?”

“You said earlier you were going to make tea for me to help with the pain, and back when Phichit tattooed me a few weeks ago you gave me some then too, did you slip me some or something that night at Disneyland? I still don’t really believe I woke up feeling that good after that much exertion the day before…”

“You’re very perceptive and almost right,” Yuri replied with a soft smile

“I’ve been slipping you some of my blood when you needed something that would help you heal and I couldn’t give you the tea for whatever reason,”

“Ah…. you’re so smart Yuri, and so kind to me,” Viktor sighed softly, closing his eyes and snuggling further against his lover

“I have to admit, I was expecting something to do with alcohol though, when you first started the story I mean, I thought you were going to say you drove drunk,”

“What? Why?” Yuri asked in surprise

“Well you said that the story for why you don’t drink in public was a nasty one so…. I just assumed it had to do with the hit-and-run, or so called hit-and-run at this point,”

“Oh… different nasty story,” Yuri shrugged back, causing Viktor to raise his brows in surprise

“Good god Yuri, another one? Shit… I’d like to ask, but you’ve had such a long and emotional night… I’m not going to be cruel and drain more out of you,”

“No it… it’s ok, I should just go on and air most of my dirty laundry now and get it over with, ripping off bandaids, right?” Yuri sighed, rubbing his head slowly

“To be fair, it isn’t anything that I’m really worried about you learning, or atleast, it isn’t _now_ , it’s just a long story,”

“Oh,” Viktor hummed, shifting around to stare up at Yuri with big, interested eyes, like a child about to be told a fairytale before bed

“You have my attention Yurochka,”

Yuri shrugged, rubbing the back of his neck

“Well… you know, the minimum drinking age is 20 in Japan, I was there for Coming Of Age Day-”

“For what now?”

“Um… it’s a ceremony in Japan, people who have turned twenty during the previous year attend in January and have a celebration,”

“Oh that sounds cute!!”

“It’s ah.. I guess you could say that? It’s not as much of a big deal now as it used to be and that’s caused some concern among older generations but that’s not… really relevant to this though…”

“Oh I understand, we can talk about that later- I’m interested now- but please continue!”

Yuri’s lips twitched up, feeling a bit of an extra wave of calm flow through him at Viktor’s excited curiosity

He was always so excited by everything, so curious about everything, living in a world where everyone was so quick to judge first and ask questions later, that was pretty refreshing

“Well, I was there for the ceremony and went drinking for the first time after with Mari and Phichit, we went to a local bar, Phich is a year younger than I am so he couldn’t drink, wich actually ended up saving my life,”

“Saving your life…?”

Yuri smiled sadly, looking down and taking a deep breath

“Vitya…. there’s a reason I was so afraid of you hurting me earlier, and it had _nothing_ to do with you personally, just…. let’s say I’ve had some bad experiences with humans before….”

_I've been the archer, I've been the prey_

"Happy adulthood Yuri!"

"Yaaaaay," Yuri hiccuped, smashing his glass up against Phichit's and giggling as he took another drink

"Awww are you drunk already? Wow, that was quick," Phichit laughed, sipping on his virgin cocktail

"Our suppressants are also blood thinners, he gets smashed even quicker than humans when he takes them," Mari noted casually as she took a sip of sake`

"Really? Wow, sucks to be you guys, our suppressants act more as mood stabilizers, which is one of the many reasons I don't take them,"

"Wish I had that choice..." Yuri pouted as he sipped his champagne again

"You know you kinda _could_ , I mean, there are plenty of our kind in the fame biz! Surely not all of them are on suppressants, not all the time anyway,"

"Thought about it," Yuri sighed, resting his head on his hand and staring into his drink

"Too risky, too famous.... and.... too much in the day time... too much... happening live, it's just... not a good fit,"

Phichit smiled sadly, patting Yuri's back sympathetically

"Well maybe the suppressants will get better over time, hm?"

"Maybe," Yuri sighed, leaning closer to snuggle up against Phichit's neck

"Jeez, why aren't you two a couple again?" Mari snorted, rolling her eyes

"Eh I dunno... for now we just work better as friends, I don't think we've ever really had that _thing_ for eachother, but we've got a pact! If neither of us are married in fifty years, we're getting hitched," Phichit chuckled, petting Yuri's head affectionately

"Are you now?" she asked blandly

"Yep! You know us werewolves, we can't stand to be alone for very long, and vampires may be more solitary but Yuri definitely didn't get that memo,"

"I think you mean 'we' werewolves..."

"Huh?"

"Nothing, so fifty years huh? You sure you'll be able to handle a vampire at full force Wolfboy?"

"What do you mean?" Phichit asked in confusion

"Well I'm just saying, in fifty years Yuri will be seventy, he'll have had to give up his career by then so he'll have no reason to take suppressants, I assume, and a vampire off suppressants is alot less... _domesticated_... than the one trying to climb into your lap,"

Before Phichit could answer, Yuri suddenly sat up, evidently not as out of it as the two had thought, as tears started immediately forming in his eyes

"She's right...." he mumbled quietly

"I... I don't even have fifty years left in my career.... I don't even have _thirty_..."

"Yuri-"

"Oh my god I've already wasted the best part of my life and I'm still practically a baby vamp! Who let me make this decision!? Oh god why!?"

\---

"Wait a minute, hold up, what the fuck?"

Viktor looked more confused- and a bit more concerned- than he had throughout most of the night

...Right, Yuri forgot to explain that part

"I don't age Vitya, well... not beyond a snail's pace, not anymore, once vampires hit puberty the clock starts slowing down, by the time they hit their second wave of puberty in their late teens or early twenties aging slows so much that you really don't notice much difference for hundreds of years, you know humans don't even _live_ that long, so... by the time I reach my thirties I'm going to have to start implementing an aging glamor- a spell- to make myself start to look older, by the time I hit seventy I'll have to quit all together and fade out of the public, maybe I can push it until eighty with the way anti-aging stuff and longevity are happening these days but even that's pushing it, I might even have to fake my death, after that it won't be safe for me to be a musician anymore so I'll have to do something else, it... really sucks, and I got pretty emotional about it...."

\---

"Dammit.... I'm going to waste my best career before I'm even a hundred.... the rest of my life is going to suck in comparison, what am I going to do!? I can't just quit singing, it's everything to me!"

"We tried to warn you," Mari noted, much to Phichit's disapproving expression

"Oh Yuri, it'll be ok...."

"No it won't! Oh god I've made a horrible mistake!! And... and I can't even change my name and try to be a different musician either because I'm too famous and people will recognize my voice! Oh god, oh god, what am I going to do without music? I can't- I can't-!"

"Yuri, _Yuri_ , it's going to be ok, you don't even have to start _thinking_ about that for decades!!"

"A drop in the bucket for us.... we can live hundreds of years, thousands even, if nobody kills us... and I just.... wasted my favorite career so early on....."

"No you didn't," Phichit said quietly, leaning forward to give him a hug

"Yuri, you never know how long you're actually going to live, you might live to be two thousand or two hundred or you might not live to see tomorrow, that's the problem with our society, everybody just assumes they're going to reach their maximum lifespan potential but how often does that really happen? Hunters are everywhere, accidents happen, you might not live to see a hundred and then where would you be? You wouldn't have gotten to have this at all, it's better to do it wile you can, and who knows what the state of music will be in a hundred years? Maybe you won't even be popular by then, maybe synthesizers will take over twenty years from now for all we know, Yuri... you didn't screw up, ok? You deserve to live your life the way you want to, and even if you _do_ live to be _ancient_ , we'll figure out a way for you to keep making music ok? We live in a world of magic! Nothing is impossible! And look at Keanu Reeves, everybody KNOWS he's a vampire but he's still out there being John Wick anyway, just.... have some faith, ok Yuri? Everything's going to be fine,"

Yuri sniffed, nodding slowly and rubbing at his eyes-

\---

"Wait, that actually sounded _comforting_ to you?" Viktor cringed

"Yeah, why?"

"Yuri, sometimes you really do scare the shit out of me, just not for the reasons you think...."

\---

"I'm sorry Phich, I'm sorry, I ruined your night..."

"No, no you didn't," Phichit laughed, kissing his friend's forehead

"I know getting older is kind of scary for you, but it's ok, nothing that can't be fixed with some dancing, if... you _can_ dance when you're drunk that is,"

"I can dance," Yuri promised with a weak smile, feeling a slight edge of relief when Phichit patted his head and smoothed down his hair

Just because werewolves were the ones who constantly sought out touch didn't mean Yuri himself didn't vastly enjoy it

"Weeeeeell this has been very depressing, I'm gonna have a smoke," Mari noted, sliding off of the barstool

"Ok, we'll be here! I'll take care of Yuri, no worries," Phichit promised, waving enthusiastically

Mari waved back before disappearing around the corner and leaving the two friends alone

"Hey, maybe after this phase of your career, we can switch places! I can be the famous singer and you can be MY assistant! I can't sing for shit but maybe you can record and I'll just be the face for it, then you'd get to relax and be out of the spotlight for a wile too, does that sound fun?"

Yuri nodded timidly, exhaling and resting his head on Phichit's shoulder

"Yeah, it sounds nice,"

"See!!! There we go! There's always a solution!! And by then we'll be married and have cute little vamp-puppy babies! C'moooon Yuri, you know that'll be damn cute,"

Yuri laughed, nodding and sniffing again, starting to feel better with Phichit's enthusiasm and affection

"It'll be so much fun, getting up at two in the morning to the howling of little vamp-puppies baying at the moon..."

"Ha, you have a weird sense of 'fun',"

"Oh come on, you know you'd find it fucking adorable!"

"Well.... I guess you're not wrong about that... it _is_ kind of cute when werewolf babies start learning to howl..."

They always sounded like puppies, Yuri didn't know many werewolves but he'd stayed with Phichit and his cousin during a tour in Thailand last year and his cousin's eight-month-old had just started learning to howl....

Yuri hadn't been sure he'd ever stop laughing

"See? The best part of your life is ahead of you Yuri, and as long as I'm around, I promise that I'm not going to let you be miserable, so cheer up and stop worrying- which, I know, is kinda like telling the sun to stop shining but whatever, do you wanna go dance?"

"Yeah, I do," Yuri agreed, nodding slowly and wiping at his eyes again

"Just um... can I go clean up first? I feel like my face is blotchy, I don't want anybody to see me like this..."

"Oh yeah ofcourse! Want me to go with you?"

"No no, that's really ok Phich, just stay here and relax, I'll be fine,"

"Ok... but I'm going to stay right here in this spot until you get back ok? And if you're not back in ten minutes, I'm coming after you, so don't get lost or dick around,"

"I won't, I promise," Yuri said with a shaky sigh, slowly getting down from his barstool and giving Phichit one more hug before heading off to the bathroom

He felt so weird....

He wasn't sure if being drunk was supposed to make him feel this off but he didn't like it

He hurried to wash his face off in the bathroom sink, hoping that the redness would go away soon, just in case he met someone who recognized him, he really didn't want to have to explain why he looked so awful...

But he mostly hoped he could just go unnoticed for once...

Finally drying his face off, he stepped out of the bathroom-... and immediately collided with someone coming out of the other bathroom

"O-Oh I'm so sorry!" Yuri said quickly, wincing as he stumbled backwards and watched the girl in front of him do the same

"Oh it's ok I promise! I wasn't looking where I was going,"

"N-Neither was I..."

"It's fi-... wait.... are you Yuri Katsuki?" she asked slowly

"Um... yes..."

"Oh my god, I am SUCH a huge fan of your's!! I- .. jeez... I really don't want to be one of _those_ people but... would it be too much trouble for you to autograph my ticket stub? I'm really sorry to ask but this is sort of a once in a lifetime opportunity..."

"It's really ok, I don't mind," he smiled softly, watching with a soft smile as she squealed in delight and reached into her purse, grabbing a pen and her wallet

Sure he wished he could have some privacy, but he would never blame fans for wanting to see him or get autographs or photos from him, he may see fans every day of his life, but like the stranger said, for the average fan, this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, he'd be cruel to deprive people of a nice memory, especially knowing they may never get the chance again

Two minutes out of his night to make someone's day was a cost he was perfectly willing to pay

"Here! Thank you so much, I'm really sorry to be bothering you though," she said quickly, handing him the pen and her wallet, which had a ticket stub from **"1995"** sitting neatly on top of it

"Oh it's not a bother, thank you so much for your support, I'm happy that you're a fan, and sort of surprised you still have the ticket stub, isn't this a couple of months old?"

"Yeah, I keep looking for the right frame for it so I've been carrying it around all this time," she admitted shyly

"That's awfully nice... um, what's your name?"

"Oh! Miho!"

"Miho," he nodded, starting to sign the back of the ticket with a nice but generic message above the signature

"Um... this is probably going to sound kind of rude but... are you ok? Your face is awfully red..."

"It is?" Yuri asked in surprised, touching his cheek self-consciously as he finished her autograph

He had thought that was clearing up when he came out of the bathroom...

"Yeah, I mean... ok, it's probably the med student in me but how much have you had to drink?"

"Um...."

He couldn't remember off-hand, he'd had two.. maybe three glasses of champagne....

"I-"

"You should have some water," she said suddenly

"O-Oh... um.... ok....?"

"It's just... I don't want anything to happen to you and you look pretty hammered... why don't you drink some water and flush some of that out ok?"

"A-Alright, um... I will, I just need to get back to my friend," he said, smiling politely as he handed her things back to her

"Oh but.. I'd feel so much better if you had some now, I mean... I really don't want you to fall or anything on your way back to him and you look so red you'll probably start getting dizzy soon,"

And Yuri, in his drunkend mind and already knowing virtually nothing about alcohol, didn't think this was really that strange of a request

She had said she was a med student so she must know more than he did

"W-Well I just... I promised him I'd be right back-"

"It'll only take a second," she promised, smiling sweetly at him as she put the pen back in her purse and then opened her wallet to return the ticket stub to it's rightful place

It was then that he looked down and, inadvertently, made up his mind

"You have a poodle?"

After all, why else would she have a poodle picture in her wallet?

"I do, her name is Kimchan," Miho smiled back

"Oh she's so cute.... I have one too, Vicchan,"

"Awww really? Listen to that, even similar names," she grinned, taking Yuri's arm and gently starting to guide him back to the bar

"Yeah, that's pretty cute, it's nice to meet another poodle person,"

"It really is, you know they say that poodles are the dog of lonely people," she noted

"Yeah I-... I did know that actually," Yuri grinned back

"Actually that was my driving force in deciding on a poodle when I asked my parents for Vicchan, I'm kind of a clingy person myself so I thought we'd get along well,"

"No kidding? Me too! Well, that and knowing that you had one, I've been a fan of your's for a wile," Miho shrugged, gently nudging Yuri onto one of the barstools and climbing onto the one next to him herself

The fact that she had seemed surprised when he mentioned Vicchan at first and yet now was claiming she had known about Vicchan all along went right over his head

"Thank you for supporting me, that's really nice of you,"

"You say that like it's charity, but your music is amazing, it's helped me through some pretty rough times,"

"Really...?"

"Yeah, I have an anxiety disorder myself and... well, it's gotten pretty dark at times.... knowing that there was someone out there like me having so much success it.. it really made me feel better about myself, more confident, more... like things would be ok,"

"I... did that for you?" Yuri mumbled quietly, his expression entirely dumbfounded

"Yeah, you did," Miho confirmed quietly, gently pushing a glass of water in front of him

"You've done so much for the mental health community Yuri.... you inspired me to start going to medical school, even though it scares me, I just... I knew that if someone who has the same problem I have could become _you_... I could become a doctor, I could help people, I want to help people like you helped me all this time, just in a different way,"

Yuri felt his eyes start to water, taking in a few shaking breaths, trying to keep calm

He had a rule about not crying in front of fans but damn was Miho testing that boundary, he was so emotional already and now knowing he had made such an enormous impact on someone....

"You've done alot for the queer community too, I... never could have come out to my parents if not for your music... seeing you so confidently pushing the boundaries of gender and sexuality no matter what people did to you or said about you... god you're so inspiring...."

Yuri was practically shaking now, desperately trying to keep the tears at bay and failing pretty miserably

"Oh Yuri.... Yuri you look worse, here, drink this, it'll help you feel better," Miho said softly, lifting the water up to him

Yuri just nodded, eagerly drinking down half the glass in the hopes of keeping the tears from spilling out again

God why did he cry so much?

He hated that about himself....

"It's so great that I met you," Miho smiled, gently setting her hand on his thigh

"I'm so happy to have come here tonight, I just knew you'd be easy to find,"

"W-What...?"

Wait, what was she... saying...?

Oh... oh god.... his vision was starting to blur....

His stomach was churning... he was starting to feel hot all over and incredibly dizzy... shit shit shit shit.. shit....

"Yuri, you don't look so good..."

He didn't _feel_ so good either...

"Here, I think I'd better get you home,"

Wait, what...?

No, no no no, he needed to get back to Phichit

"P-Phich.... Phi-.."

Shit, why was it so hard to talk all of a sudden?

He felt so sluggish, like his jaw weighed ten pounds or something, and everything was spinning...

"Come on Yuri, let's go, we need to go,"

No... no no no!

He tried to resist, but his body felt like dead weight as Miho stepped down from the bar and helped him to his feet, practically dragging him away

"Phich... Phichit.... Phich..."

"We'll call him,"

"No... no no.... need.... I need... Phich...."

"It's going to be fine, we'll let him know you're not feeling well and that you went home safely,"

But _was_ he going home safely?

It didn't feel like it

Yuri tried to push away from her, but it was damn near impossible, he felt so weak and dizzy, so heavy and sluggish

Alcohol shouldn't make him feel like this, even on suppressants he shouldn't feel this dreadfully ill

Something was wrong

Something was horribly, _horribly_ wrong

"Phich...."

He could hear a door opening, forcing himself to focus as he watched Miho leave through the backdoor into the alley, dragging Yuri along with her

"P-Phich... Phich...."

"Oh stop crying for him already, you're not getting him,"

All of a sudden, as soon as they were out, Miho's demeanor had drastically changed, and he began realizing what was happening

Shit.... SHIT.....

He was being kidnapped....

And considering how rotten he felt, there was only one thing this could mean...

"M-Mis... Mistle....toe....?"

"Correct, damn you were easy to convince, I guess that's what happens when you freaks start getting confident, you get sloppy,"

Yuri started to panic, his already dizzy and foggy state only getting worse as he struggled weakly against her, but it was no use, he was practically dead weight and Miho was quite obviously at perfect strength

"Didn't anyone ever teach you not to accept drinks from strangers?"

The next thing he knew, he heard the sound of a car door clicking open, and started shaking as she shoved him inside

"No... no no!!! P-Phich... PHICHIT!!" he screamed

And that was the key really

He had to scream

So he did, he screamed as loudly as he could, but with the mixture of alcohol and mistletoe in his system, he was weak even doing that

"It's not going to do you any good so you may as well give up," Miho noted calmly, seemingly unbothered as Yuri struggled to fight and kick against her, anything to get out of the car, _anything_

But unfortunately, she was one step ahead of him

"I don't know if crosses actually do anything to you cockroaches or not," she noted, reaching down the front of her dress and pulling out a silver cross pendant

"But I know vervain does,"

Yuri didn't have time to dodge as she slammed the pendant down against his hands, causing a shreik of pain as he fell backwards, the cross burning into his skin as that fucking herb ate through his skin like acid

He had never felt vervain poisoning before but _damn_ it hurt

With him momentarily distracted, Miho used the opportunity to reach into a compartment under the seat and pull out a set of hand cuffs, grabbing Yuri roughly and easily snapping the cuffs around his wrists, draping the chain through the handhold above the door, keeping him locked to the car

"No... no no no!!" he screamed, struggling to get free, but it was no use

The cuffs were soaked in vervain too, and even if the acidic herb wasn't burning him whenever he touched the metal, the fact that it was touching his skin was weakening him even more

Miho seemed satisfied though, finally removing the cross and slamming the car door as she rounded to the driver's side

Yuri was full on sobbing now, screaming at the top of his lungs, even though he knew it was useless

He knew that if she was taking him somewhere instead of just killing him on the spot, he was in for a fate worse than death

Hunters like this only kidnapped people for one reason- to _torture_ them

Either for information or experimentation, or sometimes both, but...

It didn't really matter, one was as bad as the other, and Yuri had heard fucking horror stories....

"Please... please...." he wimpered as the car started up, knowing it was useless, but praying that somehow, some way, she would let him go

"Is that what your victims say? _Please please_?" Miho mocked

He shook his head slowly, panting as the pain and dizziness rushed through him

He wanted to puke, he wanted to pass out, hell he already wanted to die, the pain was so intense....

"You don't understand...."

"Oh I understand plenty about you fucking leeches," she huffed in disgust, starting to drive down a back street leading away from the bar

The street was pretty much empty, between the time of night and the fact that it was just empty road for miles on end, there weren't exactly many people driving down it, which was probably exactly why she chose it

"You disgusting abominations, think you can prey on innocent people just because you have some unholy powers... fuckers...."

"No... no.... I don't-"

"Be quiet, I have vervain spray and I'm not afraid to use it,"

Yuri let out a broken sob, sagging against the car door as he cried, his head hung

He knew this would be the end, once a hunter had you in their grasp, there was very rarely any getting out of it

"You men are all the same, you know that? All it takes to get your guard down is a pretty girl who has some vague similarities to you, and you fall like dominoes, pathetic,"

Yuri panted softly, feeling his consciousness beginning to slip off

"Please God... please God...." he mumbled desperately

"Oh, praying to god? That's rich coming from a fucking _demon_ ,"

"I'm not...."

"Devil," she spat

"Demon, _monster_ ,"

Yuri just... exhaled

He exhaled and prayed for a quick death

It was no use, it never would be, people like this didn't listen, they didn't care, they didn't have the capacity to

Hunters only ever saw his kind as monsters and that was all there was to it

There was no changing their minds....

Just as he was about to pass out, however, everything drastically changed

_"SHIT!!!!"_

The car swerved suddenly with the sound of shattering glass, jerking Yuri out of his haze as the car spun out and slammed into a street lamp

Yuri panted softly, looking around, trying to focus his blurry vision enough to see through the windows, but it was no use

There was a scream ahead from the driver's side, the sounds of growling, bones breaking, some kind of violent scene going on....

Then things were quiet

And they were still

And a moment later the door was being pulled off of the hinges and all Yuri could see was blood and tan skin...

"Yuri...? YURI!!!!! Yuri wake up! Wake up!!!"

Forcing his head up, he felt a rush of relief wash through him as he finally caught Phichit's familiar brown eyes

"P-Phich...?"

"Oh Yuri thank god!" he breathed, reaching up to easily snap the chain off of the handcuffs and release Yuri from where he was bound, picking him up effortlessly and running off to somewhere in the distance, likely to a dark alley where they could hide for the time being

"Mari is on her way, I told her you were gone before I left, you're gonna be ok Yuri, you're gonna be fine, we're going to get those awful cuffs off of you and then you're going to puke up whatever you ingested and you'll be _fine_ ,"

"I'm sorry," Yuri sniffed, tears spilling down his cheeks as he rested his head on Phichit's chest, biting his lip and shaking his head

"I'm so sorry Phich...."

"Hey, don't apologize, you can't help this, it's happened to all of us, or.. probably will sooner or later, unfortunately..."

He shook his head again, trying to argue but just not having the energy

"Yuri it's ok, it's ok, this wasn't your fault," he promised, sliding down against a brick wall and gently lifting Yuri's hand up, starting to pull at the metal of one cuff to get it off

"I should've... should've known.... been more... more careful...."

"Hush, you can't be expected to be hyper-vigilant and paranoid all the fucking time, that's no way to live,"

"But-"

"Stop arguing," Phichit demanded, his voice uncharacteristically stern as he finally managed to get one of the cuffs off, then started working on the other

"Yuri none of this is your fault, please stop acting like it is, ok?"

Tiredly, Yuri just nodded, letting his head rest against Phichit's shoulder as the other cuff came off

"Good... good," his friend breathed, hugging Yuri tighter and rubbing his back soothingly as they waited for Mari to arrive with the car so they could get Yuri home

Yuri wanted to ask about what happened to Miho, but....

He had a feeling he didn't really want to know...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Title Songs: Don't Blame Me- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blVed8CyzoQ
> 
> Scene Break Titles:
> 
> o.Out Of The Woods- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLf9q36UsBk  
> o.Archer- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KpKc3C9V3w


	13. Out Of The Woods

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited by Venom <3

_It's you and me, that's my whole world_

"If I hadn't been drunk, I would have smelled the vervain and mistletoe, I never would have let her coerce me to begin with, I would have known something fishy was going on, she was just an amateur hunter, if she had been a real one I would have been dead before Phichit even knew I was gone, but because she was so green she was a mess... and yet I still let myself get captured..."

"Yuri that wasn't your fault," Viktor breathed seriously, looking as though he were crossed between being heartbroken and furious and simply couldn't settle on what to feel

"I know that, but... that's why I can't get drunk in public anymore, it's too dangerous, especially on suppressants when it's so damn easy... so now I only drink at home with Phichit and even then..."

Yuri sighed, rubbing his face

"It doesn't matter anymore,"

"It DOES matter! Fuck Yuri... fuck.... I am so incredibly sorry that ever happened to you.... my god... is she dead? Is the bitch dead?"

"Y-Yeah, Phichit um... took care of that..."

"Well good, but I'm a little pissed I didn't get to pop her off myself,"

"Vitya!" Yuri gasped, his mouth falling open

"Don't act surprised, do you really think you could tell me that you were almost murdered and I wouldn't want to kill the person who tried to do it? Did your last story teach you nothing about me?"

"Vitya I know you think that this is the appropriate reaction but it isn't," Yuri said slowly, carefully, trying to keep his voice steady and not... panicked

"And why not? Yuri I am never going to let anything happen to you again, ok? I am never going to let any of those crazy people get near you again,"

"You can't promise that Vitya, please don't try, it's only going to-"

"Why the fuck can't I!?" Viktor shouted, leaping to his feet

Oh, his face was definitely settled on furious now, tears in the corners of his eyes

"Because hunters have a very 'it's us or them' mentality and they aren't going to care that you're human, if you're on my side, if you're with me, then you're going to have a target on your back too, you have to be very careful not to get caught in their cross-hairs or they WILL kill you,"

"So let them!"

"VIKTOR-!"

"NO! I don't think you really get this Yurochka!" Viktor shouted, his hands shaking as he tried to keep himself calm, biting his tongue and exhaling slowly, trying to lower his voice so Yuri wouldn't mistake his anger at the situation for being angry at _him_

But the tears were starting to drip down the sides of his face and Yuri reached to brush them away, only for Viktor to catch his hand, giving his wrist a squeeze

"I would die for you Yuri Katsuki, you REALLY think that I'm just bluffing? You really think I'm going to step aside and let some prick kill you just because they think they _can_?" he huffed, carefully moving to sit on the edge of the coffee table and cupping his lover's face, staring deeply into Yuri's eyes

"You should know me better than that by now,"

"Viktor.... you can't be _this_ devoted to me, I'm not going to let you die just because you chose to align yourself with a monster-"

"And stop calling yourself that! Fuck Yuri, **THEY** are the monsters! No better than racists or homophobes or any other bigot! They're KILLING you just because of what you are! I wouldn't stand for that if you were human either, just so you know,"

"Yeah except that racists and homophobes don't usually have torture chambers in their basements,"

Viktor gave him a skeptical look, eyebrows raised

"Really? Come on Yuri, I know you watch American Horror Story, I KNOW you know that's bullshit,"

Yuri smacked his palm against his forehead, but Viktor considered it a win

"Oh come now darling, don't feel so special, I'd die for Makkachin and Vicchan too,"

"Oh good, you value yourself less than two poodles and a vampire," Yuri snorted with a frown

"Don't you dare try to make this about my self-value Yuri Katsuki, that's not what this is and you _know_ it," Viktor replied seriously

"...I know, but I need you to realize how ridiculous this is, Vitya you can't put yourself between me and hunters, it's not going to end well, and making me live without you would be cruel-"

"And the reverse isn't!?"

"-but they have nothing against you if you don't interfere, and you can't just..... Vitya I know it SOUNDS easy, saying you would really kill a member of your own species for me, but it isn't, it isn't easy, it won't be easy, I could never-"

"Excuse me Yuri, but _monsters_ are not part of my species," Viktor said seriously, standing up suddenly and reaching down, tilting Yuri's chin up with two fingers, his eyes hard and blazing with passion as he stared into Yuri's

"I wouldn't stand by and let someone kill you for being Japanese, or being bisexual, or being any other part of you, I am not going to let someone kill you for being a vampire either, and to ask me to step aside and let them is a really assholeish thing of you to do, I don't like it, you know me Yuri, there will never be a time when I don't leap in front of a bullet for you and I know you well enough to know that there will never be a time when you don't leap in front of one for me, be that metaphorical or literal, stop thinking that because you're some immortal entity you're allowed to take these vows more seriously than I am, I keep telling you Yurochka,"

He paused, leaning down and biting Yuri's ear

"I'm your ride or die baby,"

When he pulled back, Yuri was staring up at him with flushed cheeks and a heaving chest, and for a moment, Viktor worried he had spooked him with his intensity and the edge to his tone

"I-I ah... Yuri...? Are you ok...?"

"Y-Yes I just..." Yuri paused, biting his lip and leaning back against the couch

"Sorry, that's.... you're really sexy when you get like that,"

Viktor smirked, leaning down and nipping his lover's ear again, grazing his teeth along it and pulling a soft moan from Yuri's throat

"Maybe somebody is more of a switch than he says huh?" Viktor teased playfully

"D-Did I ever try to deny that?" Yuri laughed back, tilting his head back to give Viktor more access as he started to slowly drag kisses over the high collar of Yuri's top, letting his teeth catch on the edge and pull it down to reveal more of his soft neck

"Well maybe it's time I do something about it then," Viktor breathed, nipping him again

Yuri exhaled, closing his eyes and moving one hand up to gently pull at Viktor's hair, leaning back and staring into his eyes

"Viktor, I'm serious, about all of this, this isn't a game ok? My kind have been hunted for.... hundreds... thousands of years.... and the humans who come with us are treated just as badly, I'm not going to let you get hurt,"

"Well right back at you," Viktor snorted, moving closer to carefully push Yuri down against the couch and climbing over him, hovering, dragging his fingers down Yuri's cheek

"You're everything to me Yuri, stop trying to dissuade me from that, and even if you weren't.... even if you were just some stranger, I wouldn't let somebody murder you just because you're different, what kind of coward do you take me for?" Viktor huffed, letting his forehead press down against Yuri's and closing his eyes, one hand on the arm of the couch as he moved the other down to trail over Yuri's thigh

"And if you have such a problem with a human protecting you, then just turn me, problem solved,"

"Nothing solved," Yuri huffed, wrapping his arms around Viktor's shoulders and moving his fingers to curl through his lover's silver hair

"You keep wanting me to put you at risk Vitya.... don't you know how much it would break my heart if I lost you? Poodles aren't the only things that can die from loneliness you know, death from heartbreak is a very real thing, you'd really try to make me suffer through that?"

"And _you_ would try to make _me_ suffer through it?" Viktor huffed, his hand gently sliding up Yuri's skirt, shaking a quiet huff of pleasure out of him

"I love you Yuri, all of you, learn to accept that, learn to accept that I'm not going to let you get hurt again, if we have to be murder husbands... that's what we'll be," Viktor promised, a small smirk crossing his face as he slid his fingers through the side of Yuri's lace panties

Yuri inhaled sharply, leaning up and catching Viktor in a kiss, his eyes closing as he cupped his face in both hands

"You really are relentless, aren't you?"

"Fuck yeah I am," Viktor smirked

Yuri shook his head playfully, but when he opened his eyes, they were bright red

"You really want to play this game with me Vitenka?"

"Bring it on baby,"

Yuri smirked, his fangs giving his smile a predatory look as he suddenly slammed them backwards, a gasp knocking out of Viktor as he collided with the other end of the couch, leaning down and skimming his teeth teasingly over Viktor's neck, drawing a quiet _"Fuck"_ out of the human as he pulled Yuri's panties down to pool around his legs, his hands trailing slowly over his thighs

"You really want to play with fire...." Yuri breathed, flicking his tongue out against Viktor's neck

"If you're fire," Viktor mused slowly, letting his nails pierce into Yuri's thighs as he stared up at those lovely red eyes

"Then fucking burn me already,"

Viktor had predicted pain, but the white hot flash that jolted through him when Yuri's teeth sank into his neck was unlike anything he could have predicted, especially as it sank into a warm of pool of ultimate pleasure

"Shit..." Viktor breathed, his hands moving over Yuri's thighs again as he tilted his head to give his lover more access

He needed... he needed more than just this....

He reached out to the coffee table, panting softly as he grabbed the bottle of lube that Yuri had placed there earlier that night when they had come back from the storage room, glad that Yuri hadn't taken it upstairs yet

He was sincerely enjoying the sensation of Yuri drinking his blood, it was a sensation that he simply couldn't describe, but it was purely pleasurable, which made it all the more unfortunate when Yuri pulled away from him, licking over the wound a few times before leaning up and licking his lips

"Is that... is that it?"

"Sorry baby, I can't take too much, too dangerous,"

Viktor pouted, but he didn't argue, he knew better than to question a vampire on how much blood they could drink- he'd seen enough movies

He did, however, curl his arm around Yuri's waist and suddenly push them forward, forcing Yuri onto his back once again and pulling a pleased gasp from his throat

Yuri was smiling beneath him, his eyes sinking into brown again as his teeth returned to normal, his expression nothing but adoring as he cupped Viktor's face and pulled him down for another kiss

Viktor went easily, closing his eyes as he popped the cap of the lube bottle

Viktor didn't care what sort of hell might come from this relationship

He didn't care what he would have to do in the future to protect it

He didn't care what he would have to do or who he would have to fight, if he would have to kill or if he would have to die, he had never in his life found anyone or anything that lifted him higher than Yuri did

He had never known love like this before and he knew with utter certainty that he would never know it again

He would do whatever it took to keep Yuri safe, he wasn't going to let him go

Yuri gasped beneath him as Viktor pressed one finger inside, the vampire's nails scratching against the back of his neck as Viktor started kissing down Yuri's throat

Everything about their last conversation was running through his mind, he felt... anxious and afraid, not for himself, but for Yuri

He felt angry and full of white hot hatred, not at Yuri, but at those who had tried to hurt him, just for having the audacity of _living_

He felt so much love and desire and _need_ to cement this relationship in some format, to hold onto Yuri until there was nothing that could possibly separate them again....

He needed this

He needed this confirmation

His name spilled out of Yuri's lips, and his body curled around Viktor's, he shouted and begged and held onto Viktor as tightly as he could

And damn could Viktor relate

Because he was never letting go

_We'd still worship this love_

"So... you owe me a new skirt,"

"I'll make you one," Viktor said with a breathless laugh, grinning adoringly at Yuri as they laid in the floor, disheveled and wrecked, having tumbled off the couch at one point but not having let it stop them

Yuri's skirt was torn and dirty with sweat and come, his top having gotten yanked off at same point in the fray, leaving him in nothing but the damaged skirt and high heels, his feet propped up on the coffee table in front of him and his shoulders leaning back against the couch, Viktor's head in his lap as the human laid otherwise flat on the floor

"I'll hold you to that... are you ok? You were already tired and kind of sore before this but-"

"I'm fine," Viktor interrupted, leaning up and cupping Yuri's face, giving him a soft kiss and stroking his thumbs gently over the apples of Yuri's cheeks

"I'm.... I'm _perfect_ ,"

"Really? Because I was going to let you have some of my blood so you could recover faster but...."

"Ooh! Gimme! Please?"

Yuri laughed again, smiling as he kissed Viktor's forehead and combed his fingers through his hair

"Ok, but don't balk at the taste,"

"Oh please zolotse, I am practically a professional at sucking your dick by this point, I think I'll be fine with the taste of your _blood_ ," Viktor noted with a dramatic roll of his eyes

"Ok, whatever you say," Yuri smirked teasingly, bringing his wrist up to his mouth and biting down, two clean puncture marks in the skin as he pulled away, blood bubbling to the surface as he gently pressed his wrist against Viktor's mouth

And for the record...

Viktor was actually rather surprised by the taste

He didn't mind it, but it was sweeter than he expected, a little less like iron, with a bit more of an herbal aftertaste to it that he couldn't really place...

Huh.....

Viktor took a few sips, finding the sensation of drinking his lover's blood to be strangely gratifying, even finding himself disappointed when Yuri pulled away and licked the wounds clean, the little punctures healing right away

He wondered if that was Yuri's healing power kicking in, or if it had to do with some sort of enzyme in his saliva....

"You really.... really are my ride or die huh?" Yuri asked softly, exhaling as he leaned his head back

He couldn't believe it

He couldn't understand why anyone would be ride or die for _him_ , but least of all a human.... least of all someone like Viktor, who had so much in his life, who had so much to lose, and yet was willing to sacrifice all of it for Yuri....

"Undoubtedly, my beloved," Viktor promised, leaning closer to press a kiss to Yuri's cheek

"I don't know how much I have to say it, but if I have to say it every hour every day for the rest of our lives, I will,"

"What will you do when we get too old to disguise ourselves as normal humans then? Will you give up your career to go into hiding with me?"

"...No, I'll just give my company to a protege` or one of our children and start designing under a fake name, never go out in public, always wear masks and give cryptic information in interviews, it'll be fun,"

"And you'll do that over and over again for hundreds of years?" Yuri laughed skeptically

"Sure! Or maybe I'll get tired of designing some day and be a musician or a model or a doctor or a figure skater or something, who knows? Who cares? Those things are such small details when I'm presented with the option of spending eternity- actual eternity- with the man I love,"

Yuri stared at him for a moment, sobering from the bubbles of laughter, and leaned down to give Viktor a soft kiss on the forehead

"...You're right, when you put it that way it all seems very petty, doesn't it?"

"Yeah, I'd.... I'd run off and live in a cabin in Alaska with you, or... or sneak off into the woods somewhere and live in a little house we built ourselves, I'd go off the grid, I'd even live in Siberia or in a doomsday bunker, Yuri, I don't care, I'd be with you,"

"What if you had to get plastic surgery so no one would recognize you? What if I had to do that?" Yuri teased

"Then I'd learn to love whatever face stared back in the mirror, I'd love your's, whatever it was, it's not the face I fell in love with Yuri, or the body, or even the voice.... I love your soul, as long as that stays the same, I'll love whatever physical appearance you have, and I'd get used to my own, I'm not quite as vain as people tend to think I am you know, as long as we have eachother Yuri, that's all I care about,"

Yuri nodded slowly, expression warm and loving as he gently curled his fingers around Viktor's and gave his hand a squeeze

"Yeah," he agreed softly

"You're right,"

As long as he had Viktor, nothing else really mattered

Careers could be made and broken, money could be lost and gained, he could go through hundreds of years of life changing the way he lived as easily as he changed his hair style but he could never, would never, find another Viktor

Viktor was a one-time-shot, a once in a lifetime- even a very very long lifetime- opportunity, and Yuri would do anything to keep that, to keep _him_

And it was magnificent to him, that Viktor felt the exact same way about him

It was like something out of a fairytale, but Yuri was done trying to question it

If Viktor was so willing to stand by him, in life and death, in blinks of moments and in eternity, then Yuri was more than willing to do the same

He was his ride or die

Maybe that wasn't such a scary thing after all

_So close your eyes, escape this town for a little wile_

Viktor had this perfectly planned out

Yuri had spent so much time the night before dedicatedly telling him about every single secret, every last detail that he could have ever hoped to have, and the way Viktor saw it, he owed Yuri the same

"Are you going to tell me where we're going?"

"Nowhere," Viktor hummed, smiling adoringly as he lead Yuri deeper and deeper into the woods

He had found this little spot when he was hiking with friends a couple of years ago, it was outside of the city and usually pretty desolate, Viktor was counting on it to be that way today as well

"Vityaaaa...."

"No I'm serious, it's nowhere," Viktor laughed, tugging Yuri's hand a little more as they walked through the trees

"I never named it, but it's just this random pretty spot that I found once when I was hiking,"

"And you're bringing me here in the middle of November for what reason exactly?"

"Oh don't act like that, we're in California! It's barely cold!"

True to form, they had both gotten away with just wearing jackets outside, no need for anything heavier, even with the intention to be out for quite some time

Thanks global warming

"I'm just saying... are you sure it was ok that you cleared your schedule for me...?"

"Pft, schedules can be rearranged, nothing today was important," Viktor brushed off easily, giving a quiet "Aha!" as he finally found the clearing he was looking for and pulled Yuri along, flopping down in the soft grass and staring up at the sunlight streaming in from the trees around them

He knew he shouldn't stare at the sun but with Gucci sunglasses-...

"Ok, what is this about?" Yuri hummed, flopping down next to Viktor and resting his upper body on his lover's chest, one elbow pressing gently into his ribs as Yuri leaned his head down on it

"It's about fairness, Yurochka, you spent all night last night airing your secrets out to me and I was never courteous to give you even one of my own, so here's your chance, anything you want, ask away!"

"Like... another game of Truth Or Truth?"

"Sure, except that you get to ask all the questions,"

"I like that game," Yuri snickered, leaning closer to kiss his nose

"I thought you would, so, go ahead, ask me anything,"

Yuri, who seemed far more amused by this than concerned or overly curiously, started to trace his fingers playfully over the buttons of Viktor's jacket in thought

"What's the creepiest thing you ever did as my fan?"

Viktor gasped with false drama, his mouth falling open as he tilted his sunglasses down to stare at Yuri

"Ouch!! Right for the killing blow! Oh you wound me Yurochka!"

"Tell me, you opened yourself up to this," Yuri laughed

Viktor groaned, thunking his head back on the ground and immediately regretting his life choices

He could always just lie but.... that wouldn't be fair.....

Though telling the truth was pretty horrifying and might cost him his lover soooo....

"Before I begin, can vampires tell when people are lying?"

"You mean do we notice the way your heartbeats tick up and your blood rushes and smell the change in your chemosignals? Oh yeah, we're full Teen Wolf that way,"

"Goddammit...."

"I'd ask how bad it could possibly be but... I was forced to read thirst tweets for Buzzfeed once and still haven't recovered sooo..."

Viktor scrubbed his hands over his face, sighing loudly and shaking his head

"I... I thought about you wile having sex once, like... with another person...."

Yuri snort-laughed, covering his mouth immediately as Viktor groaned and rolled over to face the trees- away from his shame and humiliation

"I know, I know! But in my defense it wasn't intentional!!! But... the guy was fucking boring ok? And he had dark hair... and I ... I don't know!! My mind wandered and the next thing I knew I was imagining _you_ fucking me and I-... I _may_ have called out your name...."

Yuri _howled_ with laughter, falling backwards and giggling almost uncontrollably

"Well I'm glad you don't seem to find this disturbing!" Viktor huffed in mock offense, though honestly he was just relieved

"Sorry, I'm sorry!! I just um.... _wow Vitya_.... I have to admit it's a little flattering, I mean, sorry for the boring sex but...? What did your partner think?"

"Oh, well, he saw my _'Reputation'_ wallet when I was getting the condom sooooo he had _indications_ ahead of time...."

"Did he freak out?"

"Nope, he said 'whatever gets you off babe' and when I went home I laid in bed for an hour wondering why I had slept with him in the first place, he was boring before he even took his pants off but it was during my desperate phase,"

"Oh Vitya..." Yuri cooed, leaning over to kiss the corner of Viktor's mouth

"I can't believe you're more freaked out by that honestly,"

"Well.... sweetie.... don't take this the wrong way but.... _I know you_ , I'm not actually sure what I was expecting but I asked that question with the full knowledge that it would probably be pretty weird, though it isn't nearly as bad as some of the shit Phichit has teasingly told me about and I can only imagine that he's just reading the joke posts, not the actual concerning ones,"

"Most likely," Viktor agreed with a nod, waiting for Yuri to ask another question

He didn't have to wait long luckily

"Mmm.... if you really do become a vampire with me-"

" _When_ ," Viktor corrected, forcing a playful roll of Yuri's eyes

"Fine, _when_ , what are you going to tell people when you no longer age? I mean _my_ family and two friends that mean anything to me besides you are already in the loop because they're like I am but.... your's.... have you thought about that?"

Ah, a considerably more serious question...

"Friendships don't actually last forever Yuri," Viktor shrugged

"I honestly expect that most of my relationships won't last more than a few years, in the future I'll be careful about getting close to other humans for the obvious reasons but the ones I have now.... don't get me wrong, I WANT them to last but I doubt they will, by the time I should start showing significant age I doubt I'll know any of them besides maybe Chris, and with the way he and Phichit are getting along, I wouldn't be surprised if he turned into something by the end of this entire affair,"

"Honestly? I wouldn't be surprised either," Yuri snorted, laying down on his back

"Phichit is good about being careful but he's more willing to trust people with this stuff than I am, and I understand why, I've had a few significant encounters with hunters by now but so far Phichit's only one has been with Miho and he won that fight without contest.... plus in general werewolves are less secretive than we are, they're a little more human so they're automatically more trusting of your species than vampires are,"

"I take it that comes from having different histories?"

"Very good Vitya, yes, historically people hunted vampires more than werewolves, it was harder to prove a werewolf you see, so werewolf hunters were a bit niche back in the day, no longer the case ofcourse, but our ancestors still teach young vamps very dedicatedly about the importance of secrecy, back before modern science and creative magic caught up to our needs, vampires were secluded to sleeping in the day and walking at night, we were easy targets,"

"I see..... and what about coming out all together? Has the supernatural community ever thought about that?"

"Oh multiple times, we've tried a few times too but it always ends very badly, we generally try some sort of minor coming out, testing the waters by exposing small things here and there, every few decades, but so far the general public reaction hasn't changed, and until it does, it's just not safe for us to come out of the magical closet.... so...."

"That sucks," Viktor pouted

"It does, but I was raised to know how to accept it, it's ok, now... aren't I supposed to be asking the questions?" Yuri teased playfully

Viktor turned red, wincing a little

"O-Oh, sorry I-"

"It's ok Vitenka, you know I don't mind telling you whatever you want to know," Yuri smiled, kissing his lover affectionately

Viktor smiled back, his expression warm and adoring as he cupped Yuri's face and returned the kiss just as happily

"Mmm, ok ok... next question,"

"Wait a minute, you didn't finish the first question, what will you tell your family?"

"There's... not really any family to tell," Viktor shrugged back

"I was raised by my grandmother, who died when I was nineteen, my uncle Yakov I'm still in contact with but he's rather old and I honestly don't expect him to make it another twenty years.... and Yura.... well, I think by then he'll have disowned me completely, he's already damn close,"

"And... your parents? You said you were raised by your grandmother so..."

Viktor only shrugged, not particularly bothered by the question

"Never found out who my father was, Babushka wouldn't talk about my mother very much but from what I understand she.... didn't really want to deal with me, so she left me with Babushka, who was saddled with me until I came to train under Uncle Yakov,"

Viktor didn't have to see Yuri's face to know how sympathetic he probably looked- Viktor wouldn't expect different

"It's ok Yuri, it's fair that you know, and it isn't exactly a secret,"

"Still... that... it's rough..."

"No rougher than being almost murdered a couple of times because of hate crimes and vampire hunters," Viktor shrugged back

Yuri frowned, giving his lover another soft kiss, bringing a smile to Viktor's lips

"Vitya.... you know that you're my family, right? You know that... that I want you to be mine forever and that... Phichit and Vicchan already adore you... my parents and sister will too when they meet you..... you know you're not alone, right?"

"Yeah," Viktor smiled sweetly, taking Yuri's hand and kissing his fingers affectionately

"I know I'm not alone anymore, thanks to you, my darling butterfly, I... have a family, will create a family, with you, someday.... I'll have an entire eternity never being alone again because of you," he promised, squeezing Yuri's hand gently

They stared into eachother's eyes for a moment, neither wanting to interrupt the quiet moment, before Viktor finally took the plunge and sighed, tackling Yuri out of the blue and pulling a yelp and a giggle from him as he knocked Yuri to the ground

"Ok zolotse- new game! Strip questions! Everytime I answer a question, you remove a piece of clothing from one of us,"

"Wha-... shouldn't **I** be the one proposing that game!?" Yuri laughed

"Maybe, but I thought of it first, would it make you feel better if I asked you questions too?"

"What more could you possibly have to ask....?"

Viktor grinned like the Cheshire Cat, and Yuri immediately regretted asking

"PLENTY, zolotse, for example, I have quite a few dedicated specifically to vampires and sexual stamina, now that I've answered a question, please remove an item of clothing~"

Yuri took off a shoe, trying to glare but failing miserably

"This is ridiculous, YOU are ridiculous,"

"So I've been made aware, are you really going to waste your valuable love making time on teasing me though? Or are you actually going to continue with the game?"

"Oh sweetheart," Yuri cooed, leaning up to nip Viktor's ear

"I think by now you ought to be used to me spending an awful lot of our love making time teasing you,"

Viktor groaned, biting his lip

"Well...." he sighed, eyebrows quirked teasingly

"When you're right, you're right~"

With a tackle of kisses and squeals of delight, Viktor took the opportunity to cheat and remove another article of Yuri's clothing without asking a question

To be fair though the question game barely lasted another five rounds, and by the time a few hours had passed, neither of them even remembered why they were in the woods in the first place

Over all it was a pretty good trade-off

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Title Song: Out Of The Woods- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLf9q36UsBk
> 
> Scene Break Titles:
> 
> o.Miss Americana And The Heartbreak Prince- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kwf7P2GNAVw  
> o.False God- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acQXa5ArHIk  
> o.Love Story- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8xg3vE8Ie_E


	14. You Are In Love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited by Venom <3

_Touching him was like realizing all you ever wanted was right there in front of you_

"Ok guys, this is just stupid,"

"Nonsense Yurochka!! This is the greatest idea we've ever had!"

"Vitya, if that's true, I am _seriously_ worried about what your future designs are going to look like," Yuri said with a sigh, leaning back on the couch and shaking his head as he watched the two idiots in front of him

Phichit and Viktor looked like they were about to square off in some kind of fight, which... he supposed wasn't _entirely_ inaccurate

Pretty much so but not entirely

"W-What does that mean!?"

"It means prepare to suck ass Nikiforov," Phichit replied with a smirk

"Ha! You're on Chulanont!!"

"Guys, really?" Yuri asked flatly

"Yuri please, we're trying to fight over you!"

"Yeah that's what worries me,"

Tiredly, he glanced over at Chris, who was holding the index cards for the contest, and wondered how he had gotten here

"How did _you_ get roped into this insanity?"

"Phichit finally put a ring on it and now I'm obliged to doing whatever he wants,"

Yuri's brow pinched in confusion, head tilting as he looked down at Chris' hands

"I don't see a ring,"

"Oh, not _that_ kind of ring darling," Chris smirked back

Yuri's entire face wrinkled, a quiet "nope" leaving his mouth as he reached down and grabbed his glass of blood from the coffee table

He had already had a drink from Viktor earlier, but he didn't see any reason not to have a little more now that the bat was out of the bag and he could afford to drink it around Viktor- and, evidently, Chris, as the bat wasn't the only supernatural creature being let out of the bag within the last couple of weeks, apparently

"Ok!! Contestants, are you ready?"

Phichit and Viktor both nodded, looking far, far too serious for two people standing in front of the coffee table, each holding a squeaky toy as a makeshift buzzer, and preparing to play the dumbest game that had ever been invented

And trust him, Yuri was using the word "invented" pretty loosely here

"Alright, then we shall now commence the first annual Yuri Katsuki Birthday Bash Of Love Competition!!"

Yeah, his boyfreind and his best freind were about to humiliate themselves (and him) fighting over him, what a great birthday gift...

"Question one- what was Yuri wearing during the 2018 Billboard Music Awards?"

Despite Phichit clearly being prepared, Viktor was the first one to squeak his toy (and alert the dogs, because somehow that was something that this plan of their's had never quite considered taking into account)

"Vitya?"

"A pink Versace gown with pink and grey floral detailing in an asymmetrical desig-"

"A simple 'a pink dress with grey flowers' would have sufficed," Chris noted flatly

"How does he remember that? _I_ don't remember that..." Yuri mumbled quietly

Not that Chris was paying any attention, instead he cleared his throat and asked the second question

"Question two- what was the last comment said by JJ directed at Yuri about their feud.... _on Twitter_?"

Phichit was the one to squeak in this time

"He called him a 'bubblegum pop trash fad' and said he'd be forgotten in two years!! ...That was three years ago by the way so that goes to show him-"

"Correct,"

"Why haven't you killed JJ yet?" Viktor asked with a serious frown

"Too famous, it'd get messy," Yuri shrugged back casually

"He's thought about it though!" Phichit interjected with a much too bright smile

Viktor pouted, though Yuri wasn't sure if it was because he lost the round or because he just really wanted Yuri to kill JJ...

"Next question- why does Yuri call his fans poodles?"

Phichit squeaked in first, although it was a close margin, as Viktor was pretty close behind

"Because they're loyal and fill his life with joy!"

"Correct- cheesy, but correct, next question- who is Yuri's dog named af-"

This time Viktor squeaked in before Chris could even finish his question, insuring he would get the opportunity to answer this time

"Victor Van Dort of Corpse Bride, Yuri's favorite Tim Burton movie!"

"Unnecessarily show-offy but correct, what is Yuri's favorite _non-holiday_ day of the year?"

"Friday The 13th!" Phichit shouted, giving the finger-guns in Yuri's direction, much to the musician's embarrassment

"...Frighteningly yes, correct, but you have to squeak in darling,"

"I suggest he's penalized for that," Viktor huffed

"How about you get a headstart on the next one?"

Viktor seemed to consider that for a moment before finally nodding his agreement

"Alright, who was the first person to symbolize Yuri with the snake?"

"JJ!" Viktor shouted, looking far too proud of himself as Chris announced that he was correct

"This is the worst game..." Yuri muttered under his breath

"It's the BEST game!!" Viktor and Phichit shouted in unison, which was... a little terrifying all on it's own really

"Rank the Hogwarts houses by what percentage of traits Yuri exhibits according to the house-breakdown quizes?"

Phichit squeaked in again, much to Viktor's obvious annoyance

"Hufflepuff is eighty, Slytherin is sixty, Ravenclaw is thirty, and Gryffindor is fourteen!"

"Correct,"

"What!? No way! Yuri can't be sixty-percent Slytherin, _I'm_ a Slytherin, Yuri is not Slytheriny," Viktor protested

"Oh don't be so sure, the primary traits for Slytherin are ambitious, cunning, determined, and natural leaders, they also exhibit pride, fraternity, and self-preservation, think about that for a second, Yuri is one of the best selling and most decorated musicians of all time, just the fact that he pursued that at all is extremely ambitious and determined, he takes pride in his work and wile Yuri doesn't have alot of people to be loyal to, the ones he DOES have he's _so_ loyal to that you could mistake him for a werewolf, he's carved his own path in the world instead of following what everyone else told him to do and has gained a massive following of very devoted fans so he has leadership qualities and the fact that he's managed to get through all these years of controversy mostly unscathed shows he has self-preservation skills and even a bit of cunning,"

"....Peachy, you've thought of this too much," Chris said slowly

"Dammit he's right..." Viktor grumbled

"...Ok, next question! What animal is Yuri secretly terrified of?"

"Snakes!" Phichit shouted with a squeak of his "buzzer"

By this point the dogs had gathered at both his and Viktor's feet and neither of them looked very pleased

Yuri couldn't blame them

"What!? How?! He's symbolized by them!" Viktor shouted in offense

"Still scared of them though," Yuri commented as he took another sip of blood

"Seriously...?"

"Yeah, real snakes scare the hell out of me, but on a spiritual and symbolic level they're really good imagery to have around, they represent creative life force, fertility, rebirth, transformation, immortality, healing, and the power of the feminine energy force, I even have been considering getting an Ouroboros tattoo as it symbolizes eternity and the beginning of new cycles,"

"So... you've spent the last three years symbolizing yourself with something that scares the hell out of you... because of symbolism?"

"See? Slytherin," Phichit smirked

"That isn't a Sytherin quality, how is that a Slytherin quality? If anything that's courage, wich is Gryffindor-"

"Ok, time to end the battle of the nerds," Chris said with a whistle

"Next question- what _'Reputation'_ song did Yuri think of while he was taking a bath?"

"Wait when did I EVER give that info-"

" _'So It Goes'_!" Viktor shouted with a squeak of his buzzer

Yuri stared, mildly concerned, and was about to ask how Viktor knew that, when Chris suddenly interrupted once more

"Correct- what's Yuri's favorite flavor of ice cream?"

"Cookies and cream!" Viktor squeaked in again

"Correct- who's Yuri's favorite Disney princess?"

"Ariel!" both Phichit and Viktor shouted at once

"Correct, what year did Yuri win the Yuri Katsuki award from the BMI Pop Awards?"

"Um... wasn't it 2018?" Yuri mumbled quietly to himself- but evidently not, as Viktor soon pointed out

"2016!"

"Correct, which award did Yuri break the record of 'most wins for a male artist' for in 2018?"

"The AMAs!" Phichit shouted

"Wait seriously?" Yuri asked, completely taken aback by this information

"Correct, what other two awards does Yuri currently hold the record for winning from a male solo artist?"

"I have two..?"

"Billboard Music Awards and Teen Choice Awards!" Viktor screamed

"Correct, which album received a diamond certification in Australia?"

"1995! Which, might I point out, Yuri is only the SECOND person to achieve, the other being Ed Sheeran," Phichit noted proudly

"....Seriously...?" Yuri asked slowly

"Correct again, for what music chart does Yuri hold the all-time record for?"

"Billboard Hot 100- most songs to reach Top Ten Debuts- of which Yuri has fourteen!" Viktor shouted

"I do...?"

"Apparently darling," Chris winked, snickering at Yuri's startled expression before turning back to the game

"How many of the top ten fastest selling albums of all time are accredited to Yuri?"

"Four!" Phichit chimed in

" _'Red', '1995', 'Reputation',_ and _'Lover'_!"

"Correct!"

Yuri decided he wasn't going to play anymore, especially considering that the squeak-buzzers were soon forgotten, as both Viktor and Phichit had taken to just shouting their answers loudly into the air, much to Yuri's discomfort

By the time an hour had gone by, the game was tied, and Yuri was left with the uncomfortable knowledge that his best friend and his boyfriend easily knew more about him than anyone else in the world- _including himself_

"Alright, this is it, this is the last one, for the entire game," Chris said slowly, clearly ramping up the tension- which Yuri couldn't even believe existed in the first place

Viktor and Phichit both looked like they were going to jump over the table and tackle Chris if he didn't declare them the winner, and honestly? Yuri felt kind of sorry for Chris

"Which dress is Yuri's all-time favorite? INCLUDING concerts, award shows, an-"

"The butterfly dress I made for him for the AMAs!!" Viktor screamed, jumping with excitement and enthusiasm

"That is.... correct! And you win by the skin of your teeth Vitya,"

"Yes!!! Yes yes yes I knew it!!!" Viktor cried excitedly, practically bouncing with glee as he jumped over the coffee table and tackled Yuri with hugs and kisses, puling an adoring, affectionate laugh from the other man as the musician crashed down to the couch

"I want a rematch!" Phichit demanded

"I'll take you on any time!" Viktor grinned as he kissed Yuri's cheek

"Well just don't call me to be the host next time, I was worried one of you was about to kill me!" Chris exclaimed dramatically, putting a hand to his head and fake-swooning

"Yeah, well, I can't say I wouldn't have if I hadn't won," Viktor winked playfully

"...You two are spending too much time together," Chris accused dryly, shaking his head as Viktor gave Yuri another affectionate kiss

"Mmmm maybe, but is there such a thing as too much when you're in love?"

"Yes," Phichit snickered playfully, walking over to the couch and flopping down on Yuri's other side

"I think it's high time we get this birthday celebration going though, what should we start with? Cake or presents?"

"Presents!!" both Phichit and Viktor insisted immediately

Before Yuri could even have the chance to say anything, Phichit had jumped up and run across the room to where he had set the nicely wrapped gift he had brought was currently waiting

"Happy 25th birthday Yuri!! May your next year find you with even more happiness and surrounded by even more love than the last," he smiled sweetly, holding the small box out towards Yuri and practically bouncing with excitement

"Thank you Peach," Yuri smiled back affectionately, undoing the ribbon that was so neatly tied on top of the box before starting to dig into the Hufflepuff themed wrapping paper

"Hey you know what would look awesome? Yuri Katsuki wrapping paper!! Think about it- all the pretty pastel colors of the _'Lover'_ album with your initials printed all over it!"

"I think you're trying to merchandise me too much Vitya," Yuri teased playfully, leaning over to kiss his boyfriend's cheek as he finished opening the gift, his attention then immediately turning to the box in his hands

"Is.... this what I think it is....?"

"Yep, specially made just for you," Phichit beamed

Raising his eyebrows, Viktor glanced down at what Yuri had received, and even he was rather impressed

"Ooh wow... is that a custom made snowglobe?"

Yuri had a thing for snowglobes

He had become somewhat notorious a few years ago after _"Speak Now"_ dropped for making his own snowglobes as a hobby one December and the imagery of them popped up here and there over the years when he spoke or even in his songs- _"You Are In Love"_ mentioned how he pictured true love as dancing in a snowglobe with your lover, and the music video for _"Lover"_ that had dropped the day of the album release featured Yuri living in a snowglobe with someone

The one he was holding now was quite obviously custom made, but not _home_ made

It was the typical round shape with the pastel cloud colors from _"Lover"_ \- and the word it's self- printed on the base, and inside was the little multi-colored light-up doll house that Yuri had lived in in his video

It was gorgeous and definitely must have taken some time and planning on Phichit's part to get his hands on, but Viktor still was confident that _his_ gif-

"Oh it's way more than just that, go on Yuri, touch it," Phichit encouraged brightly

Viktor pouted, clearly confused, as Yuri was already holding the thing, but he soon understood when Yuri moved his hand up to carefully rest on the top of the glass, and an image projected around them-

Or more accurately, a _memory_ projected around them

Yuri knew what was coming, but the beauty of it was still so magnificent that he gasped, nearly moved to tears as the memory of he and Viktor driving out of town, singing loudly to _"New Americana"_ swept around them like a light show

It lasted only briefly before fading out and bleeding into another memory, of he and Viktor skinny-dipping in the heated pool, splashing eachother and laughing one cold Friday night

Then it changed again, to he and Viktor chasing the dogs around the house after a failed attempt at giving them both a bath- a requirement after a cookie baking effort had landed all four of them covered in flour

"Oh... Phichit..." Yuri breathed, pulling his hand away to cover his mouth, trying to keep himself from bursting into happy, amazed tears

"I.. don't get it, what is that thing?" Viktor asked curiously

"It's a Memory Globe, it's magic! You have them custom designed and enchanted so that whenever the designated person touches the globe, memories of a certain person- or a certain _type_ of person- are projected around you, I had this one made for Yuri's true love- which is you, ofcourse- but mark my words! I'm getting you another one for Christmas that's programmed just for me!"

"Why would you tell him that now?" Chris asked, eyebrows raised

"To distract him from the real gift," Phichit replied under his breath, winking in Chris' direction

"Ah so it's a fake out?"

"Mmm I didn't say that..."

"Phichit," Yuri interrupted, somewhat breathlessly as he set the snowglobe down

"I-I don't know what to say.... _thank you_... th-thank you really just... isn't strong enough..."

"Oh yes it is," Phichit chuckled, leaning forward and giving Yuri a tight, happy hug, snuggling against his best friend and absolutely _thriving_ on the affection that accompanied the gesture

"Wait a minute," Viktor said slowly, an utterly devastated look on his face

" _MAGIC_? You gave him _magic_!? How am I supposed to compete with that!?"

"You're NOT!" Phichit cackled, pulling back and pointing tauntingly at Viktor

"I win this round Nikiforov, I love Yuri more,"

" _That_ is _bullshit_!! NO ONE loves Yuri more than I do!!"

"Then where's your magic snowglobe?" Phichit asked with a proud smirk

"Oh I'll show you a magic snowglobe..." Viktor growled, leaping up and marching over to get his own gift, much to Phichit's laughing amusement

"Gee, I hope they fight over me like this on _my_ birthday," Chris noted dryly

"....No, you REALLY don't," Yuri sighed back, leaning back as Phichit jumped away from him, likely to go torment Viktor some more

"You _sure_ this isn't just because of your vampiric magic mumbo-jumbo? Because daring, no offense, I love you, but _this_ is just a little bit ridiculous,"

"No you're right I don't get it either, but if I could do this, don't you think I would have just compulsed people to stop hating me by now?"

"That _is_ a point..." Chris mused slowly

"My compulsion only works like hypnosis, it can modify memories- which is helpful- and sometimes modify behavior or powerfully _suggest_ a behavior, but you can't make someone feel a certain way, if they don't feel a certain way already then no amount of compulsion is suddenly going to _make_ them feel that way,"

"Huh..."

Viktor and Phichit were still arguing

It was quite a sight to behold

"I guess this is what happens when you put two incredibly extra people in a room together and ask them to outdo eachother though, ofcourse, I never asked any such thing of them," Yuri noted belatedly

"Now _that_ I can agree with," Chris snickered, picking up his wine glass and taking a sip, only to pause suddenly and cough, hack, and desperately spit at whatever he had just-... _oh_...

"Wrong glass?" Yuri asked with slight amusement, gently pushing Chris' glass towards him and taking the glass of blood from the human instead

"That is _disgusting_ , how can you drink that?"

"I've often wondered that about humans and beer," Yuri noted with a shrug, taking a sip of the blood

"....I'm not sure what concerns me more you know, the fact that I just had someone else's blood in my mouth or the fact that we just had an indirect kiss..." Chris noted slowly

"Well we won't tell Vitya about sharing the glass," Yuri winked playfully

"And don't worry about the blood, it's clean, all of Mary's blood is locally and humanely sourced and run through a five-star checking process before being bottled,"

"...Riiiight, and this 'Mary', I take, is a pun on Bloody Mary? That's clever but I still feel mildly concerned for my health,"

"I mean I _could_ offer to give you an immunity boost but that would really just involve drinking _my_ blood..."

"And I get the feeling Vitya wouldn't like that very much," Chris chuckled, watching as Viktor finally started dragging a rather large box towards them

"Maybe... maybe he wouldn't mind,"

"Are you kidding? With how possessive he is?" Chris chuckled

"Honey I think you'd have an easier time trying to take a bone away from a starving dog,"

"How on earth did you ever end up dating Phichit? He must have been this possessive with you too," Yuri noted with a slight laugh of his own

"Mmm no not really.... I've only ever seen Vitya possessive over you,"

"Wait... really?" Yuri asked quietly, a clear look of surprise on his face as he turned his attention back to the model

"Yeah, he's never been like this with anyone else, not even me, Vitya... used to be quite different before you two met, oh don't get me wrong he was always extra as hell, especially when it came to you, and he was always kind and sweet... but he was quieter before, more serious, less emotional,"

Yuri had a hard time believing that

He had a hard time picturing Viktor as being quiet or serious at all, and "less emotional".... what would that even look like...?

"It's only after he met you that he started really expressing himself, that he really started being so happy... I know that I tease, but I really am extraordinarily thankful to you Yuri, for doing what you've done, for letting Vitya be your's, and making him so incredibly happy, I've never seen him like this... but now I can't imagine him being any other way, you brought color to his world, I'll never be able to repay you for that,"

"You don't need to repay me," Yuri said quickly and quietly

"Vitya.... Vitya is my world, every bit that I may have lifted him up, he's lifted me up too, it's because of him that I started becoming more confident, it's because of him that I decided to put my anger aside and become a happier, more positive person, before meeting him I was ... an anxious, self-criticizing wreck with horrible body image issues who only thought the only way to be confident or feel ok about myself was to act on my grudges and negativity, it's because of him that I decided to learn how to be different, I decided to learn how to be confident and _happy_ and I owe him that, I.. might not be perfect, I'm still anxious, I'm still critical of myself and I still get shy about my body but... before Vitya I never would have been able to dress like I have been lately, or to express myself and my opinions openly without being terrified of the backlash-... well.. more than I am now that is... before Vitya I never would have been able to put myself out there the way I have been or trust that people could accept me for who I am and not just the symbol of _what_ I am, so... I think we sort of break even with eachother,"

"You're good for eachother," Chris confirmed, his expression soft and warm as Viktor finally managed to get the box settled at Yuri's feet

"Ta-da!!" he beamed excitedly, making Yuri chuckle with amusement and delight as he started peeling the paper off

"Vitya I'm kind of scared to find out what's in a box this big..." he noted playfully

Whatever it was, it was fairly heavy, Yuri tilted it to get the paper off and although he had no struggles doing such, it was clearly quite weighted

He sliced through the top with ease, and then found... quite the surprise inside

"V-Vitya.... how did you.... how did you get these?"

Inside was a massive stack of VHS tapes from the Little Mermaid TV series, and a brand new VCR sitting beneath them

"Well I found the official ones online without too much trouble, but for the others I had someone download them from online and put them on video for you, I even commissioned box art! What do you think Yurochka?"

"I think you could've just put them on DVD," Chris noted with confusion

"No it... it's nostalgia," Yuri laughed, grinning from ear to ear as he picked up one of the videos

"I.. told Vitya that I had only seen a few of these online because I had a hard time finding them, and that I'd own the entire series in a heartbeat if I could find it, even if I had to watch it on VHS.... so he apparently hunted all of them down and put them on VHS _for me_ ,"

"DVDs weren't a thing yet when you were a little kid, were they?" Viktor reasoned

"I figured you must have had the original movie on VHS, so I thought it might be fun for you to have the TV series like that too, look! I even got you the ultra rare copy of the movie with the dick on the box art!"

"It.. it's not actually a-.. never mind, I love them Vitya," Yuri laughed, leaning forward and giving his lover a tight hug

"Wow, that's the most inconvenience romance I've ever heard," Phichit teased playfully

"I still think DVDs would have worked better," Chris noted with a shrug

"But you two do you,"

"Oh we will," Viktor grinned, reaching into the box and pulling out a simple purple envelope

"Open it,"

Eyebrows raised, Yuri did as he was asked and pulled a birthday card out- Ariel, ofcourse, with "Happy 5th birthday Princess!" on it and a "2" written in sharpie in front of the five

That alone was enough to make Yuri laugh, shaking his head in amusement as he opened the card, and before he could read the cheesy sentiment on the inside, a Disneyland pass fell out, prompting Yuri to look up and smile at Viktor once more

"Disneyland too?"

"Oh no, my gold, not just Disneyland, you and I have been granted the IMMENSE privilege of staying in the Cinderella Castle suite, the second weekend of December,"

Yuri's mouth fell open, his expression clearly depicting exactly how shocked he felt as he stared down at the card and then at Viktor once again

"Y-You..... you're.. serious...?"

"Ofcourse! It took some string pulling but... hey, Disney would have to be damn stupid to refuse inviting _Yuri Katsuki_ to their castle hm? I mean they invited JJ once before right?"

Shaking his head slowly, Yuri leaped forward, hugging Viktor tightly and giving a few shaking laughs, cupping Viktor's face and giving him kiss after kiss after emotional kiss

Being invited to stay in the Cinderella castle suite was an enormous honor, and knowing he would get to be there with Viktor...

It just made it all the better

"I love you Vitya," he breathed, leaning back to stare his lover in the eye

"I love you so much,"

Who else could understand all of Yuri's weird little quirks or desires the way Viktor could?

Who else could he ever feel so much happiness from just from the smallest touch?

Viktor was it for him, Yuri knew

He had known for the longest time

Viktor was his forever and always, his eternity

And Yuri would never let him go

_The stakes are high, the water's rough, but this love is our's_

"Viteeenkaaa.... wake up sunshine, it's Christmas morning,"

Christmas came faster than Viktor ever remembered it coming before

The week after Yuri's birthday they had spent in New York for Fashion Week

Viktor thoroughly enjoyed it, not only for the obvious reasons of getting to spend time with Yuri and go to the fashion shows, but also due to the snow

Snow in Hollywood wasn't really much of a thing, especially in early December, but New York was already covered in it

It reminded him of Russia, and seeing how much Yuri himself loved snow- which was something he had explained often happened in Hasetsu winters as well- made Viktor even happier

They had explored all of the best parts of New York, from the food to the museums, even a trip to F.A.O. Schwarz- during which Yuri had bought Christmas gifts for Yuko's daughters and they had spent a little bit too much time talking about the future with their own kids, and may have walked out with a teddy bear for a child that didn't yet exist- anything they could fit in to their days wile spending the nights at the fashion show

Yuri let Viktor dress him up like a Barbie doll and Viktor wasn't sure what he enjoyed more, the willingness his partner had to let him, or the sincere happiness that Yuri seemed to find in absolutely everything that Viktor came up with

The first night had been a display of what Viktor was affectionately calling Spite Wear

In the name of all the assholes in the world who had something crooked to say about his or Yuri's sexualities, he had dressed them both in pride dresses

Yuri's was, ofcourse, in the bi flag colors, a flowing foor-length skirt with a high-collared sleeveless top that came down to stop just beneath his ribs, showing off the smallest patch of skin, and long fingerless gloves that stretched up past his elbows

Viktor's was a classic sheath dress- rainbow, ofcourse- backless but with a long chiffon cape and shorter fingerless gloves, only going up to his wrist, he had even gotten extensions for his hair for the occasion, as he definitely hadn't had the time to grow it out like he wanted to just yet

Every night after that had been a showcase of Viktor's best designs, things that heavily displayed his and Yuri's tattoos, designs inspired by phoenixes and butterflies, even some Disney princess inspired styles

Ofcourse, not that anyone was surprised, they were constantly photographed, and Yuri had told him more than once that he had never enjoyed paparazzi photos more than the ones from that week, when he and Viktor were arm-in-arm, wearing the most extravagant designs that his boyfriend had to offer

Just knowing how happy Yuri was made Viktor feel indescribably overjoyed and after that week they had gone straight to Disneyland for their weekend in the castle- which was still something even Viktor hadn't been able to believe he pulled off

The last week before Christmas was spent home, Yuri had tried his best to keep their schedules clear so that they could celebrate properly with eachother, decorating and baking cookies, watching movies and making snowglobes, doing al of the fun couples things and family activities that neither of them had been able to experience in what felt like ages- if ever, in some cases

It was a whirlwind

It was a blizzard of happy things and joy-filled moments, and Viktor was almost sad that Christmas had come so quickly

He knew that once Christmas was over they would only have a few more weeks before touring started, and he was honestly anxious about it

He had never been on tour- obviously- and he knew that things would change drastically once he stepped on that bus...

But as anxious as he was, he was also ready for it, he was ready to start the next phase in his life with Yuri, whatever that phase might entail

"Vitenka, wake up, don't you want to go downstairs wile we're still alone?"

Yes....

Yes that was tempting

Cracking his eyes open, he nodded and slid quietly out of bed, grabbing his thick purple robe to shrug on and tip-toeing out of the bedroom with Yuri right in front of him

He enjoyed that Phichit lived with Yuri alot of times, don't get him wrong, but he also liked having time for just the two of them

"Do you want hot chocolate?" Yuri asked as he immediately made his way to the kitchen

Actually Viktor kind of wanted coffee... but coffee didn't sound very Christmasy, so he nodded, rubbing his eyes as he trudged into the kitchen behind his lover, cursing at how cold the tile floor was

He probably should have worn his slippers but... eh, he couldn't have been bothered to

He had been far too eager to follow Yuri for him to pause and put slippers on

"Hey, Yuri, do you usually listen to music on Christmas morning?" he asked curiously, leaning over the counter and picking up the snowglobe in front of him to give a small shake, enjoying the sight of the "snow" falling down through the mason jar and wishing vaguely that it would snow for real as well

He wondered if Yuri knew of some sort of magic that could create that...

Viktor had been learning alot about Yuri's world over the last several weeks, as much as he could get Yuri to teach him, as much as he could possibly retain in such a short amount of time, and he wouldn't be surprised

"Hm? Um, no, usually Phich and I watch Christmas cartoons, why?"

"Ooooh because I was just wondering if we could listen to my favorite Christmas album of all time~"

Yuri turned around, nearly dropping the package of hot chocolate he had been opening and staring in horror at the CD that Viktor was currently waving at him

It was, you guessed, The Yuri Katsuki Holiday Collection, which had come out in 2009, right after Yuri's debut, when he was still just fourteen

"Oh my god no, _NO_ , put that thing away!"

Yes, Viktor had hidden it in the kitchen just a few nights before, waiting on this opportunity

No he wasn't sorry

"Mmm, not going to happen zolotse, six of the best holiday classics performed by the voice of an angel~ Where can I put this in?"

"The garbage can," Yuri answered flatly

"What!? Never! This is an adorable CD!!"

"Yeah, 'adorable', for a fourteen-year-old, but ten years later it's just embarrassing Vitya,"

"Nonsense,"

"Plenty of sense!! It was ten years ago and Minako's idea!"

"She has good ideas then,"

"Not in this case! Ugh I don't even LIKE those songs," he sighed miserably

"Well I do!!" Viktor laughed

"I like them, and I like the way you sing them, but if you don't then why not put out a holiday album with songs you _do_ like?"

"Because I... I don't know, holiday music is so cheesy most of the time, it's always the same things, the same themes, the same tones, they're great for karaoke and singing along to in December, don't get me wrong, I like them, I just don't want to perform any of them," he explained with a shrug, taking the kettle off of the stove

"Then write new ones, the most popular holiday song of all time is by Mariah Carey, so you shouldn't feel like you're stuck only with old things, you can change the game Yuri, like you so often do, write holiday music you're proud to record and dedicate it to your loving boyfriend for his birthday,"

Yuri paused, staring up at Viktor skeptically

"You're serious," he noted, having searched for a teasing tone but coming up unable to find one

"Yeah! Because I've got to be honest with you, unless you do that, you'll just have to listen to this one every Christmas, because you're eternally my favorite everything and I like holiday music,"

"Oh who are you kidding? You're going to make me listen to that thing regardless," Yuri laughed

"I could have a hundred holiday albums and you'd STILL make me listen to that one,"

"...You're not wrong but atleast if you do the new one you'll have some variety in the future,"

Yuri stared at him for a long moment, but ultimately was unable to stop himself from smirking and setting the kettle down on the counter, having finished filling the mugs, and crossing over to wrap his arms around Viktor's neck

"Happy birthday Vitenka,"

Viktor gasped, his expression clearly depicting that he hadn't expected Yuri to really agree

"Y-You will? Really?!"

"ONLY because it's your birthday and I love you so extremely much," he said seriously, cupping Viktor's face and giving him a gentle kiss

"I love you too Yurochka," Viktor said softly, stroking his thumb against Yuri's cheek and giving him an affectionate kiss of his own

"You'll really write that for me?"

"I really will, but if it comes out shameful, I'm blaming you,"

"I think that's only fair," Viktor laughed adoringly, giving him a soft kiss on the nose before sighing and stepping back

"Ok, come on, we should go, let's finish the hot chocolate and get on with this before we waste all of our alone time being sappy," Viktor noted, poking Yuri's nose teasingly as he headed to the fridge to grab the whipped cream

"Wow, I feel like this will be the start of a deja vu moment, we'll be having this same conversation when we have kids, won't we?" Yuri pointed out

"Oh probably, slipping away for moments alone here, refusing to sleep so we can be together all night there... do vampires _have_ to sleep?" Viktor asked curiously, a small smile fluttering over his face when he spotted the red velvet cake in the fridge

A birthday cake on Christmas...

To Viktor it seemed kind of funny, he had never met anyone else born on Christmas, and in fact, he had never met anyone else born on _any_ holidays except for Chris, but Yuri didn't see the humor, apparently Christmas cakes were really common in Japan and he and Phichit had cake on Christmas every year

Viktor had pretended to be offended over the lack of feeling special due to that fact, and Yuri had promised to make the cake _extra_ special just for him

Viktor still wasn't sure what that would entail yet, but he was excited for it

"I mean, yeah, if we want to function," Yuri noted teasingly, grabbing the marshmallows from the pantry

"Really? Huh..."

"Why does that surprise you?" Yuri laughed

"I-I don't know!! I just.. I don't know, I thought that would be one of those optional things I guess, like eating human food,"

"Afraid not, if I could go without sleep, trust me, I would, and I'd be TWICE as successful as I am now,"

"....That's a scary thought," Viktor teased, kissing Yuri's forehead and swirling whipped cream into each mug

"And for the record, my butterfly, I really like that you have to sleep, there is nothing I love as much as holding you in my arms while I fall asleep, and if you didn't sleep, then that would be more disturbing than romantic because you would essentially be trapped,"

"Well don't worry about that, I like being trapped in your arms all night, even if I didn't need to sleep, I would still be happy to just... lay in your arms and watch you sleep all night,"

"..Seriously?" Viktor grinned

"Seriously," Yuri replied with honesty, plopping marshmallows into the drinks before gently taking Viktor's hand and giving it a soft kiss

"...That is so incredibly sweet, Edward Cullen," Viktor teased playfully

"Ooh no, don't compare me to that sparkly bastard," Yuri snorted, grabbing his mug from the counter

"What? You don't like Twilight?" Viktor laughed, knowing that he was probably skating on thin ice- he imagined that real life vampires probably hated Twilight as much as "authentic" vampire fans did

"I didn't say that, I just would like to think that I'm a little bit more romantic than he is, that's all,"

"Oh my god are you jealous of the sparkly vampire?" Viktor gasped, laughing a little bit louder as he eagerly followed Yuri into the living room

"Nope, I'm just saying, there are more romantic things than buying cars for people and performing a C-section with your teeth,"

"Wow, you went right for the jugular on that one didn't you?"

"And also I still think the way he handled things in New Moon was particularly nasty, there are plenty of different ways he could have protected Bella without choosing the DUMBEST one possible, I'm just saying, it'd be like trying to 'set someone free' by cryptically saying 'let's end this' regarding their relationship without even offering any further clarity on the subject, it's just heart-breaking,"

"Yurochka?" Viktor hummed, wrapping one arm around Yuri's waist and leaning down to kiss the edge of his jaw

"I love you~"

"I love you too Vitenka, is this your subtle way of disagreeing with my opinion?"

"No not at all," Viktor laughed, shaking his head and carefully setting his hot chocolate down on the coffee table as he sat down in front of the Christmas tree

"I just... love you, I love the way your mind works, I love your passion, I love everything about you, that's all,"

"You.... you are the most delightfully corny, beautiful person," Yuri said softly, coping his boyfriend's actions as he settled down on the floor next to him, kissing his cheek just for good measure

"Mm, then it sounds like you and I are a perfect match," Viktor winked playfully, grinning as he reached under the tree and pulled out a small necklace box, handing it to Yuri excitedly

Yuri's eyebrows raised, but he unwrapped it quickly, a smile immediately blossoming across his face as he reached in and carefully picked up one of the two necklaces that sat inside it

One gold and one silver, pendants adorned with sapphires- _"Ride Or Die"_

"Sapphires are a love stone!" Viktor exclaimed suddenly, taking Yuri's attention away from the necklaces

"They represent new love, enduring love, commitment, and loyalty, as well as self-love! They're also a truth stone, to inspire honesty amongst one another, and they assist in self-expression, communication, and prosperity, I.. I read a few weeks ago about crystal healing and the meanings of certain stones so I could find the perfect one, I may not have access to real magic but... I figured-"

"This IS real magic," Yuri interrupted, his expression warm and adoring as he gently took Viktor's hands and gave them both a kiss

"It doesn't have to be from a witch to be real magic Vitya, this is.... these are amazing, thank you so much," he promised softly, leaning up to kiss his lover's lips before pulling away, just long enough to pick up the silver necklace and gently clasp it around Viktor's neck, an adoring expression on his face, before handing Viktor the gold necklace to wrap around his own neck

"There's um.... one other thing in that box Yuri,"

Eyebrows raising, Yuri picked up the box again, only then noticing the poodle-printed paper that was inside

It was all hand-written, Yuri could recognize the writing as belonging to Viktor, and when he started reading over it....

"Viktor Nikiforov....... you wrote me a song...." he breathed, his face lighting up with incredible, unbelievable joy

When he glanced at Viktor, he took note of how shy he seemed to be, his bright red face and the awkward smile on his face, and immediately jumped forward, arms wrapping around his lover and crashing his lips down against Viktor's, earning a soft bout of giggles from the designer as he knocked Viktor to the ground

"I wrote you a song," Viktor replied softly, his expression warm and sweet, reaching up to gently card his fingers through Yuri's hair, cupping his face and stroking his thumb against his cheek a few times

"Can I play it now?"

"N-No!!" Viktor laughed, shaking his head quickly

"No no no, you owe me my gift!! It's my birthday, atleast let me have my gift before you humiliate me!!" he continued on, laughing even louder and grinning wildly as Yuri sat up and stared down at him, eyebrows raised

"Funny, you said that exact same thing last night,"

" _Oh my god Yurochka...._ "

"Truth is truth Vitenka,"

Viktor's lips twitched upwards, sitting up with Yuri still in his lap and leaning down to give him another kiss

"Do you have to tease me on my birthday?"

"You like it," Yuri smirked as he picked up a considerably small box from under the tree- an even smaller one than the box that Viktor had given to him

"Oh, more jewelry?" Viktor asked excitedly, accepting the box and opening it quickly

But it wasn't jewelry in the box

Rather, it was a key

A golden house key with _"Lover"_ spelled out across the top in diamonds

Viktor...

Viktor was _stunned_

"What.... what is this?" he asked quietly, very carefully picking up the key from the box and giving it a small once-over in his hand

"Yurochka, what is this a key to?"

Yuri smiled a little bit more brightly, leaning closer and taking Viktor's hand, squeezing it carefully and glancing down at the key in Viktor's other hand

"I think you know, Vitenka," he said softly

"You're... you're giving me a key to your house?"

"Yes, and can you guess why?"

"So I can... go and come as I please?" he guessed slowly

Yuri shook his head, his smile brightening a little more

"Think a little more long-term sweetheart,"

Yuri wished that he could have gotten a picture of the expression on Viktor's face

The sheer shock and aw and amazement there

He looked like a child who had just earned definitive proof that magic was real

"Y-Yuri...." he breathed, his eyes watering slightly

"Y-Yuri... you... you're asking me to-.... to move in... with you....?"

"That's exactly what I'm asking," Yuri promised, cupping Viktor and giving him a slow, deep kiss

He could feel the tears starting to roll down Viktor's face, just a few of them, but enough for Yuri to gleam _exactly_ how happy Viktor was in that moment, and exactly how much he appreciated the gesture

"Is this a yes?" he whispered softly, earning a happy, eager nod in response

"Y-Yes... yes yes yes!! Yes, Yurochka, I'll move in with you,"

"Perfect," Yuri said softly, stroking his tears away gently

"I'll have a studio done up for you, we can probably use the storage room,"

"Actually I sort of hoped we could use the storage room as a sex dungeon,"

Yuri's eyebrows raised, a serious look on his face

"You know Vitya, you never _have_ seen my basement, what makes you so certain that I don't already _have_ a sex dungeon?"

Viktor was excited for all of roughly one minute before his face fell, replaced by something far more serious

"Because you were a virgin until a couple of months ago and even _you_ couldn't have had a sex dungeon installed that quickly without my noticing it, considering how often I've come here since our little trip to Disneyland back in October,"

Yuri's lips flickered up into a smirk, a laugh of amusement leaving him as he moved back

"Wow, caught, I'm disgraced,"

"Yes you are, until you actually build the sex dungeon in the basement,"

"But Vitya, where would I put the bodies then?"

Viktor laughed, just as joy-filled as Yuri's had been earlier, and combed his fingers gently through his partner's hair

"Oh I do love your sense of humor Yurochka, and this.... this is the best gift you ever could have given me, truly,"

"You might change your mind about that in a minute," Yuri noted, turning back to the coffee table and taking the iPad that he kept there

"This was only your Christmas gift, after all, your birthday gift is yet to come,"

"Yuuuuriiiiii, you're doing too much for me!!" Viktor grinned, though he didn't seem to actually mind it

"No such thing," Yuri promised, settling the iPad in front of them both, a video having been pulled up a moment before, and pressing "Play"

On screen, Yura appeared with Otabek, the blonde looking rather shy and uncomfortable as he cleared his throat and started speaking into the camera

_"Hey... Viktor.... look ah.... I'm still not happy that you're dating that talentless hack, but I just... wanted to tell you... well... remember the conversation we had on Halloween? It turns out that cop was a big fucking asshole, he was just.... faking it, or.... wrong, I don't know.... but I talked to him, and I talked to Rin- in depth, and I-.... figured some stuff out and... well.... I still think you're dating a fucking LOSER who wouldn't know music if it bit him in the ass, but at this point I figure that's your mistake to make, and... well... if you just **have** to keep dating him for **some** ungodly reason I guess I can't really do anything about it, just keep him the fuck away from Beka and make him wear something decent when you undoubtedly bring him to my competitions, no mesh lingerie like the shit he wears shaking his ass on stage you got it!? Anyway um.... call me sometime ok? Yakov's crawling all the way up my ass again because we don't talk much so I want him to just shut up about it already,"_

Pausing, Yura cleared his throat, glancing at Otabek briefly before looking back at the camera

_"Anyway um.... merry Christmas and happy birthday... later,"_

The video ended, and when Viktor actually regained his senses long enough to look over his shoulder at Yuri, he found quite a smug expression on his lover's face

"Ok, how did you do that?"

"You're not the only one who can pull some strings," Yuri replied proudly

"No but I mean, _how_ did you do it? Did you.... did you compulse him to believe you were innocent or something? Did you pay him off? Did you use magic?"

"Oh no no, that would have been extremely unethical, I _did_ , however, compulse the cop, alter some evidence, and put in a call to Rin with a good story to feed to your friend, but in the end it was sincerely Yuri's choice to change his mind,"

Viktor just... stared at him, open-mouthed and wide-eyed, for the longest time, before his lips split into another grin, laughing happily and shaking his head

"Yuri I love you so much!!" he laughed

"You're magnificent, do you know that?"

Yuri only shrugged, moving to sit in Viktor's lap and rest his head on his lover's shoulder

"I wanted to give you something that I knew you really wanted.... I know that the thing with Yuri has been hurting you, and you seemed so upset on Halloween.... I wanted to fix things however I needed to,"

"And as I said, you're magnificent," Viktor insisted, leaning in and giving Yuri a soft, slow kiss

It didn't last very long though

The sound of other people coming downstairs and the dogs barking as they did so interrupted them before too much time could be indulged in

"What's with all the noise down here?" Chris yawned, rubbing at his eyes as he slung an arm around Phichit's waist

"You guys already exchanged gifts I take it?" Phichit chirped, as chipper as always despite the early morning

"Wah... do you just... do you just _live here_ now Chris?" Viktor huffed, resting his head on Yuri's shoulder

Not that he _minded_ , but Viktor was starting to have a hard time remembering when they last got up and _weren't_ flashed by some private anatomy of his friend's

"Mmm more or less I suppose," Chris winked back, leaning down to nip Phichit's ear- much to the other's giggling delight

"Oh no, nuh-uh, I don't think so, I JUST got this key, you are NOT moving in before I am," Viktor huffed, waving his key around as if that would somehow spite his friend

"Then I guess you'll just have to move in before the tour hm Vitya?" Chris snickered, blowing Viktor a kiss

"I'm house-sitting wile Peachy and Yuri are gone,"

"What?! You are not!"

Quickly, Viktor's attention turned to Yuri- who put his hands up in a clear display of not knowing- and then to Phichit, who only laughed in response

"We've thrown that possibility back and forth,"

"What!?"

"Well we can't all fuck off to our boyfriend's big tour mon cheri`," Chris purred

" _Some_ of us can't just work from anywhere, but I figure it's silly of me to keep paying rent on an apartment I'm never in, especially as I have to travel for work so often.... really I'd only be staying here while I'm not working, or doing work locally,"

"Which is more often than you're pretending it to be," Viktor pointed out, eyes narrowing

"Oh come on Vitya, it'll be fun!!" Phichit insisted enthusiastically

Oh, right

That was another development that had happened over the last few weeks

What had started as a joke after Viktor started calling Phichit "Peachy"- which in it's self was something of an accent related accident- had resulted in Phichit being accepted into the Vitya Club- becoming only it's fifth member

Phichit took it as the honor it was meant to be

"Is it really house sitting though if we come back as often as we will?" Yuri considered suddenly

"I mean how much house sitting will it actually be if we come back every two weeks or less for several days at a time...?"

" _That's_ where your concerns lie?" Viktor laughed

"Technically I've heard of people who get house-sitters for only a few days," Phichit pointed out as well

Viktor shook his head, sighing as he listened to Phichit and Yuri debate the legitimacy of having a house-sitter for less than a week, Chris asking if anyone wanted morning wine and getting promptly rejected

Phichit started in on a drunk-Yuri story, much to the vampire's horror, and teased that he wouldn't have such a low alcohol tolerance if he weren't on suppressants

Then Chris promptly suggested kicking Yuri off of them for a couple of days to see how high his tolerance could go- which was also rejected

Phichit made more hot chocolate, Yuri took his first drink of blood for the day- straight from Viktor's neck, as was typical these days- and Chris made some crude comments about werewolves and their propensity for marking territory

It was...

It was a good morning

It was a good Christmas morning

It was the kind of morning that Viktor never wanted to let go of

Even later that day when the morning activities were finally over and Yuri had insisted on playing Viktor's song for them all, he couldn't manage to feel anything but joy

He was overcome with it

He was drowning in it

He thought back briefly to the summer, to how the biggest thing he had looked forward to for months was Yuri's album release, how happy that had made him, how happy seeing and hearing anything at all from Yuri always made him, how Yuri was the one sky full of pastel colors in his otherwise greyscale life

And even now, after his life had changed so extremely, so drastically, that was the same

Yuri was his pastel sky

Yuri was his butterfly

Yuri was his happiness, his joy, the smile he never had to cover

Yuri was his lover

And Viktor didn't think he could be happier than he was that Christmas morning

Viktor, evidently, would be wrong

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Title Song: You Are In Love- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EwMZ_BYoCpI
> 
> Scene Break Titles:
> 
> o.Red- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zlot0i3Zykw  
> o. Our's- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ34LlaIk88


	15. End Game

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Edited by Venom <3

_Ladies and gentlemen, will you please stand?  
With every guitar string scar on my hand  
I take this magnetic force of a man to be my lover  
My heart's been borrowed and yours has been blue  
All's well that ends well to end up with you  
Swear to be overdramatic and true to my lover_

Yuri had never enjoyed the MET gala

He had never enjoyed any of those flashy things that Minako encouraged or that the press made a big fuss over

But this year was different

This year he had Viktor

And going to the gala with Viktor- as is the case of doing anything with Viktor- brought about a type of joy and amusement and sheer happiness that Yuri couldn't describe

Almost nine months in and Chris said they were still in the honeymoon phase

Maybe he was right, or maybe this was just going to stay the default for them

They had survived the last several months on a tour bus together, and crammed into planes

Viktor had seen Hasetsu and had taken Yuri to St. Petersburg during one of their off days

Viktor had met his family and Yuri had met the Russian Yuri (again) on what he would hesitantly call "good terms", as well as Viktor's uncle, who seemed only vaguely more accepting of Yuri than his godson did

Yuri was still wondering where Viktor's bleeding golden heart came from- he was guessing it was his mother's side

They had survived Valentine's Day and had gotten through a flare up of the Yuri and JJ feud

Viktor's crop top was starting to wear thin and incidentally, there _is_ such a thing as watching too many Disney movies (atleast, according to the band, who had heard "Part Of Your World" during rehearsals one too many times as of only February)

That Ouroboros tattoo was still on the table, but Viktor insisted he get something "birdy" to match it

Yuri had started on two albums at once- the holiday album he had promised Viktor, and K8- yet to be titled as of the morning of the MET gala, but Yuri had something in mind

Viktor had not only become instantly more popular with celebrities since his designs started becoming more public- courtesy of Yuri and Red Carpet occasions- but he had quite the Instagram following as well

There were alot of people out there who liked Yuri Katsuki and poodles, apparently

The fangy part of the persuasion had been growing steadily easier to deal with around Viktor

Admittedly, Yuri had still tried to hide who he was most of the time before the tour, only ever able to present that side of himself when he was biting Viktor- particularly during sex or making out, but since the tour started and privacy became a thing of the past....

Well, everyone adjusted to things on a tour bus and Viktor had gotten a much bigger eye-opener to how vampires typically behaved and what Yuri had to go through to keep himself more human passing than the designer probably ever would have liked- although he definitely hadn't complained about it either

Yuri had decided, finally, around Valentine's Day, to put Viktor's "ride or die" mentality to the test and took him hunting, which Viktor adapted to.... _disturbingly_ well

He definitely wasn't a violent person and there was a learning curb but when it came to Yuri he seemed to put everything- _everything_ \- else aside and was an even bigger support than Phichit was

....

Yuri really was relieved that he had managed to earn Viktor's devotion before someone more dangerous had....

Viktor, Yuri learned, also had no stage fright

Yuri had started inviting him onto the stage when he performed _"Lover"_ with his first show in Hasetsu, the first night of his tour, wanting to do something special for him

That had been the first time, but hardly the only

In fact, it had become a staple of the show at this point

The crowd always cheered the loudest when Viktor was on stage with him, and sometimes Viktor even felt brave enough to sing a few bars of the song with Yuri- though this was only when he was feeling particularly sappy, as he still didn't have much confidence in his singing voice

Yuri liked it though

It may not have been the traditionally smooth type of voice that most professional vocalists had, but it was beautiful in so many other qualities, in so many unique and valued and totally _Viktor_ qualities, how could he not love it?

It was with those performances in mind that Yuri took special precautions in preparing the night of the gala

He had enlisted some very special help from Phichit, Chris, and several members of the Four Seasons hotel staff in arranging the perfect set up, so that when he and Viktor finally left the gala, everything would be in place

"I still can't believe you passed up the opportunity to talk to Heidi Klum because you heard my dumb ass squealing about Rhianna's dress, Yuri you're an angel but you sacrifice too much for me,"

"You forget, Vitya, that I have, in fact, spoken to Heidi Klum before," Yuri noted with a soft snicker as he stepped into the elevator and pulled Viktor in along with him

"She's a lovely person, but you really think I'd let my beautiful Vitya get into trouble just because I was talking to someone who I have, in fact, talked to before?"

"I wasn't in trouble though Yuri,"

"But you sounded like you were,"

Viktor must have thought that a valid reasoning, grumbling a little but leaning back against the elevator wall behind him all the same, his hand raising up to instinctively rub against his neck

That was one thing that Viktor hated about high fashion, as he had told Yuri atleast a dozen times now, when he dressed up for something prestigious like this, he usually had to lose the collar

Sure he was still wearing the "Ride Or Die" necklace under his clothes as a substitute, but he and Yuri both knew it wasn't quite the same

It was ok though, he would have it back on soon

Yuri took a deep breath, reaching out on instinct and grabbing Viktor's hand, giving it a gentle squeeze as he watched the elevator numbers tick upwards the higher they went

Soon....

So soon....

"Yurochka? You ok?" Viktor asked, pulling Yuri's attention away from the digital number read out

"You've been a little off since we left the gala,"

"O-Oh I'm fine Vitya, I promise, I'm just tired,"

"Mmmm, well not to worry, soon enough you'll be out of these marvelous clothes and able to rest," he noted with a purr, carefully looping his fingers into the straps of Yuri's apron

Viktor had upheld his promise alright- he got the chance to go to the MET gala, and he had indeed crafted Murder Couture

Yuri's outfit was based on a butcher's, a long sleeved white jacket and white pants, with a couture black apron fastened at the neck and going down past his waist, with straps paced out every few inches, black leather gloves and thigh-high red boots, and Viktor's was based on a murder victim, a simple black suit with white lace making up a ribcage pattern over his chest, that one fastening at the neck as well, in more of a bow tie design than Yuri's more solid approach, with a string of rubies hanging off of the end of the lace to mimic a bleeding wound, and ofcourse high heels

But Yuri's favorite thing? His absolute _favorite_ thing?

The backs of the jackets

His said "I would kill for Viktor Nikiforov" , written in rubies, while Viktor's- which was also written in rubies- read "I would die for Yuri Katsuki" instead

Yuri was desperately torn between wanting to keep them both on for the rest of eternity and wanting to change out of them for the purpose of what he had planned

He supposed he would just have to wait until they actually got this started, wouldn't he?

The elevator dinged, signaling them to the fact that they were on the correct floor, and then opened, and allowed them to step out

"I have to admit Yurochka, even I'm pretty exhausted... I'm soooooo glad we're not flying out until tomorrow evening, I'm sleeping in dammit," he noted teasingly, yawning and leaning against Yuri as they walked

"Mm... that's nice sweetheart, but there is ONE little thing we have to do before we can go to bed..."

"Oh?" Viktor asked in surprise

"Web interview?"

That was a thing that happened sometimes, when someone from overseas wanted to do an interview with Yuri and he couldn't fly out to do it in person, he sometimes did them through webcam, but because of the time zone differences that often lead to having to be available at all hours of the night...

"Not quite," Yuri replied softly, clearing his throat and approaching their room, sliding the key card in and stepping inside

The moment he walked in, everything began

The lights came on automatically, but instead of the typical white artificial light, it was soft, romantic, pink light

Music started to play, and Yuri's heart started to beat so fast that he was sure Viktor could hear it

This was it

Now or never

_"We could leave the Christmas lights up till January,"_ he sang

It was so familiar now, it was so hauntingly familiar

_"This is our place, we make the rules,"_

"Yuri...? What's going on?"

Turning to smile at Viktor, trying to keep his emotions in check, Yuri only grabbed his hand, and continued on

_"And there's a dazzling haze, a mysterious way, about you dear,"_

He lead him carefully towards the chair in the corner, hoping that the look on his face wouldn't betray the confidence he wanted so badly to portray

_"Have I known you twenty seconds, or twenty years?"_

His hands were practically shaking as he pulled away from Viktor, staring back over to the table in the center of the room and pulling his gloves off as he walked

_"Can I go where you go?"_

The snowglobe Phichit had given him for his birthday was already there, the memories that would emerge from it were pre-decided and would play around them even when Yuri wasn't touching the globe- a trick he was thankful for now

It was perfect

_"Can we always be this close?"_

Gloves off, he set a hand on the snowglobe, watching out of the corner of his eye as Viktor's face lit up

_"Take me out and take me home,"_

There was one other thing on the table next to him- a ring box

_"You're my, my, my, my.. lover..."_

He took out his contacts, having only worn them in the first place so that he could have this "transformative" moment when they came back

_"We could let our friends crash in the living room,"_

The next thing to go was the apron, which took considerably more effort

_"This is our place, we make the call,"_

But it came off easily enough

_"And I'm highly suspicious that everyone who sees you wants you,"_

That line always especially struck a nerve when it came to Viktor- because it was hauntingly true

_"I've loved you three summers now honey, but I want them all,"_

Then he shed the jacket, put the glasses on, and took a breath

_"Can I go where you go? Can we always be this close?"_

He picked up the ring box, squeezing it tightly and forcing the nervous tears back as he spun around and revealed the **"I Heart V.N."** crop top he was wearing, much to Viktor's delighted laughter

_"Take me out and take me home, you're my, my, my, my ... lover,"_

Viktor hadn't seen the ring box yet, he still was utterly oblivious to what was going on.....

Until Yuri started walking towards him

_"Ladies and gentlemen will you please stand? With every guitar string scar on my hand, I take this magnetic force to be my lover,"_

His eyes caught on the ring box, and suddenly the amusement was gone, and utter shock and awe was replacing it

Yuri walked closer, slowly getting down to one nee

_"My heart's been borrowed and your's has been blue, all's well that ends well to end up with you, swear to be over-dramatic and true to my lover,"_

Viktor had one hand over his mouth now, and Yuri was just trying to get through this song without sobbing as he opened the ring box and held it up towards his boyfreind, his partner, his freind, his roommate, his universe, his _lover_

_"And you'll save all your dirtiest jokes for me, and at every table, I'll save you a seat, lover,"_

The music was continuing, but Yuri couldn't sing anymore

This was one of the rare occasions in his life when he just couldn't keep going

"Viktor Nikiforov-"

"Yes," Viktor blurted out immediately, reaching out for Yuri's hand, but Yuri shook his head, curling his fingers around Viktor's, begging him to let him go on

"Viktor Nikiforov, will you stay with me for the rest of my incredibly long life? Will you be my eternity? Will you... hold my hand when I cry and.. and hide my bodies and be my alibi? Will you keep being your beautiful, eccentric, extra self for as long as we both shall live and then even after that? For as long as there are stars in the sky, and as long as our souls exist? Will you be my light, and my life, and my husband, and my lover, for the rest of eternity?"

_"Yes,"_ Viktor promised again

The tears had started already, for both of them, and Yuri shakily took the ring- white gold, with sapphires, rubies, and diamonds creating a display that most people would probably claim to be too extravagant for a man to wear

Yuri didn't care what most people said

Neither did Viktor

He slid it onto Viktor's finger carefully, then stood up and leaned down, giving Viktor a kiss, shaking and trembling, and being pulled into Viktor's lap by the strongest, surest hold that he had ever felt

The kisses were many, as were the tears, and it felt like an explosion, like a show of fireworks between them, not in a sexual way really, but... more out of a passion of wanting to be together

For richer or poor

In sickness and in health

For the rest of eternity

"This really isn't fair," Viktor said softly, after a few moments, sniffling as he pulled away and stared down at his ring

"I want to propose to you too, you need an engagement ring too Yuri,"

"Would it help if I said I'd already bought our wedding rings?" Yuri asked shyly, rubbing his eyes slightly from beneath his glasses

Viktor gasped, his mouth open and his eyes wide

"You _what_? Yuuuuriii!! That's so romantic!! But also no, it wouldn't help, you deserve an engagement ring as extra as this one- maybe more so, because this _is_ me we're talking about- and I shall not rest until I have proposed to you and asked you to be my husband as well,"

"Ok," Yuri laughed, grinning brightly and stroking his fingers down Viktor's jaw

"Ok, I'm up for it, whenever you are,"

"Good, you'll never see it coming Yurochka! All I'll tell you is that I want to do it before August 30th,"

"Why August 30th?"

"Because that was the day we met, and... I would very very much like it to also be the day we get married, if... that's ok-"

"Yes," Yuri promised immediately, not even needing Viktor to finish the question

"Yes, August 30th, it sounds.... _perfect_ ,"

_"Sovershenstvo!"_ Viktor beamed, leaning in to give him another kiss

"Ah, Vitya? This... well... this proposal isn't quite over yet...."

Viktor blinked, eyebrows raising curiously

"It.... isn't?"

Yuri shook his head, taking a breath and pulling back, letting his fangs slide out, much to Viktor's delight

"If... you're _really_ sure-"

"Yurochka, the only thing in my entire life that I've ever been more sure of is that I want to be with you for all of eternity, please, zolotse, do me the honor?"

Yuri smiled fondly, giving him one more kiss and leaning back, taking a deep breath, before moving to grab the stereo remote from the table beside them

"Oh come on zolotse, my hair is thinning here! Hurryyyy! We don't need different music!" Viktor laughed, seeming to be quite amused by the fact that Yuri was bothering with what he considered to be a small detail

"Oh I think you're going to want to hear this Vitya," he said quietly

Viktor's eyebrows raised, confused when a song that he didn't recognize started playing

"What.... is this....?"

_I want to live in a ten story house with you, paint me purple honey, I'll dress you in blue_

Viktor gasped, his eyes wide as he stared up at Yuri's cunning and sly expression

"You recorded my song...."

"I recorded your song,"

"But... when!? When did you have time-"

"Oh come on now Vitenka, a vampire never reveals all their secrets,"

Viktor laughed, at first in amusement, and then in shock, and awe, and disbelief, and love....

A laugh that turned to tears, overcome by the emotions surrounding him

_Because ten years of my life have been wrapped up in following your every move, you might call me crazy but I can't help loving each and every thing that you do_

"I love you, Yuri Katsuki," Viktor said quietly, taking Yuri's hand and giving it a squeeze

_It's a crowded room but you're the only one that I see, wearing that dress that you put on just for me_

"And I love you, Viktor Nikiforov,"

_I'm head over heels, how couldn't I be? I've unlocked the door to happiness, baby you're the key_

With one last breath, Viktor leaned back, giving a nod of consent as Yuri kissed him, slow and deep, before finally pulling away

_Climb the ladder now and meet me on the roof, you didn't think I could love you but this is my proof_

When Yuri's teeth sank into his neck, Viktor felt nothing but joy

He felt happiness, he felt euphoria, he felt **love**

_You wanted a love song so forgive me for being bold, it's just that others want platinum but I'm here for the gold_

It was a mutual sensation that they held in that moment, and in moments before it and moments after, something that could be put into words, something that could only be described as a feeling, as a love, as a bond between two people that would never end, the commitment that from that moment on for the rest of time, they would be the same thing to eachother, nothing less, nothing else, forever and always

_**Lovers** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you want the full version of Viktor's song, you can find it on my Tumblr! asagi-s-garden.tumblr.com!
> 
> Chapter Title Song: End Game- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfnCAmr569k
> 
> Scene Break Titles:
> 
> o.Lover- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BjZmE2gtdo

**Author's Note:**

> Now with fabulous art from Venom!!
> 
> https://venom-for-free.tumblr.com/post/615314693928747008/i-recently-uploaded-old-art-for-lover-a
> 
> https://venom-for-free.tumblr.com/post/614841814567059456/lover-asagistilinski-yuri-on-ice-anime


End file.
